(no subject)
Jan. 19th, 2014 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
not_thatsubtleWho: Pepper & JARVIS
What: Following this, Pepper decides she's had enough and convinces JARVIS to teach her how to pilot an Iron Man suit.
After the battle with the spider creature, Tony had gone to bed and slept, more or less, the entire night through. Pepper, on the other hand, hadn't, and in the two or three days that had followed, hadn't managed more than a few hours at best. She'd excused herself by telling Tony she'd had an important meeting she needed to prepare for, and while that wasn't entirely untrue, her sudden inability to sleep had less to do with board members, clients and pitches, and more to do with the fact that she'd stumbled upon a ruined shirt in one of the drawers in Tony's favored lab, still wet with his blood.
She hadn't been looking for it, hadn't even been suspicious that Tony had gotten himself hurt despite how worrying the last few minutes of video someone had posted to YouTube in the aftermath of the battle had looked. She'd only been looking for Tony, and then, when she hadn't found him and had gotten a phone call from her secretary, a pen, and instead, she'd found that. A part of her wished she hadn't. Another part of her wished Tony -- or Bruce or Steve or JARVIS -- had said something to her, had told her the truth, so she wouldn't have had to find out like that. Yet another part hated all of them for not being able to protect him.
She'd stood there for a good ten minutes, in fact, her fingertips buried in Tony's shirt, silently running the gamut of emotions from fury to fear, and then finally, she'd shoved the thing back into its drawer, and left. She was half certain she'd told JARVIS not to tell Tony what she'd discovered; she was positive now, even running on three hours of sleep in three days, that she had hung up on her secretary and never called her back. She supposed she probably should have at least done the latter, but at the moment, it all seemed so trivial. Tony had almost died --
God, how was he not dead with that much blood? Maybe she was worrying too much, maybe it wasn't as much as she thought, but it seemed like so much.
-- Tony had almost died. Again. And a part of her had decided somewhere between finding the shirt and now that she was tired of it. She was tired of being the last to know. She was tired of bein the worrying girlfriend. She was angry, she was hurt, she was so Goddamn tired, and hell if she was going to stand by and watch Tony nearly kill himself again and again and again. She'd had enough. She'd had enough last time, with the palladium -- the wormhole didn't count in her mind, since he'd tried, he called and she hadn't answered, and neither did Stane's attack, since technically, he hadn't walked into that one -- and this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Yelling wouldn't do anything, though, she knew that one all too well. She needed something else. Something like a suit of armor all her own, maybe, so she could protect Tony or keep him from doing something stupid or at least be there and not have to find out something had happened, second hand and through ruined linens. It was probably insane and Tony would probably kill her if he found out, but right now, she didn't care. All she cared about was never having to find another bloody t-shirt, stuffed haphazardly in a drawer again.
And that probably explained why now she was standing in front of the line of previous armors Tony had constructed and worn, staring at them as if she could will one out of their case and onto her.
JARVIS didn't sleep. There were, of course, times that he would shut down certain processes for the maintenance procedures Tony had written him, but it had been years since he had been fully offline. But, even as he shut down parts of himself, there were always others online, running tests and compiling results for Tony, or Bruce, or Doctors Foster, Ross, or Selvig; maintaining the security of the Tower; remaining ready to speak up if it should happen that any of the people under his watch should have need of him.
And there were parts of him that were constantly learning, processing security footage to better understand body language, scanning the internet for news articles to better understand the world outside the Tower, updating language banks. And, more and more frequently, reviewing footage taken from the Iron Man, to better learn how to protect Tony.
There had been nothing he could do inside the trailer. He could reach the nanotechnology on some level, could send and receive the most basic signals through his new connection to Tony, but affecting them any deeper than that was outside his capabilities. He had felt the moment they moved to repair the damage, had registered the depth and severity of it based on their response, but he had been as powerless as the other Avengers until the moment the suit had deployed and come online.
It had not been as long as the three months they had searched, or the hours Obadiah had turned him useless -- twice, now -- but it had still been one of the longest moments of his existence.
Tony had told him to keep silent, and he did still keep Tony's secrets, even though he frequently disagreed with the order, and so, he had not told Pepper. He had also done nothing to direct her away from finding the ruined flight shirt, though he likely could have, and he wondered at himself for that - though not for long.
He knew Tony needed help. He knew it as surely as James or the other Avengers seemed to. And, like them, he knew that Tony was far more likely to die trying to do things himself than ever admitting to it. Which was why he felt certain he and Pepper were of the same mind as she stood in front of the armor.
He also knew that, if they were, Tony was not going to like it. Even knowing that, though, didn't stop him from asking, "May I help you, Miss Potts?"
Pepper pulled her eyes away from the armor, though unlike the tendancy towards it some of the others in the Tower still had, she didn't look up. Instead, she blew out a breath through her nose and shook her head a little, the gesture more from frustration than anything else. "Honestly, JARVIS, I don't know."
"You haven't been sleeping," he prompted, and there was something gently chiding to his voice. He worried about all those Tony had close ties to, based on how it would affect Tony should something happen to them -- but there were just as many of them that JARVIS worried about simply because JARVIS himself liked them. Pepper had been near the top of that list longer than most.
"I'm aware of that, thank you," she shot back, offering him a small, sharp smile. She paused, closed her eyes for a moment, and breathed out another sigh. "I'm sorry, I'm just -- I'm worried about Tony."
JARVIS knew better than to take her tone personally - he was aware enough to have what counted for feelings, but all Tony's AIs knew when ire was real and directed at them - and when it wasn't, considering sarcasm was one of the first greater concepts they had been taught. "I doubt you're alone in that regard, considering the conversations Mr. Stark had with Agent Romanoff and Doctor Banner."
"I know." Tony had failed to mention either of them had had words with him, but it didn't surprise her that they had. "But I also know that, knowing him, it went in one ear and out the other -- or that he'll forget whatever they said to him the next time they go out to deal with ... whatever."
Logically, she knew it wasn't intentional -- Tony's insecurities and his hero complex, among other things, made it hard for him to stop and think things through before he did them, when the fate of the city or the world was at stake. At the moment, though, she was half certain that he jumped in front of the proverbial oncoming bus without waiting for help in an spectacular effort to be difficult.
"Mr. Stark's history would support that possibility," JARVIS admitted. "Though there is the possibility that Agent Romanoff or Doctor Banner will cause greater damage if he does." There was also the possibility that the next time wouldn't end with anyone having a chance to say something to him, but those were scenarios JARVIS was careful never to run.
"There's also the possibility that they might not get the chance," Pepper supplied, taking care to keep both her tone and her expression neutral.
JARVIS was silent for a long moment before he returned, equally neutrally, "Indeed."
Pepper looked away, her mask faltering, and pressed her lips into a thin line. For a moment following, it looked like she was about to say something, ask something, but the words never came. In the end, and after a long silence, she shook her head and looked up, her eyes returning to the armor in their cases. "It's not that I don't trust Agent Romanoff or Doctor Banner or you to take care of Tony, but I feel like I need to do something to keep that possibility from happening. I'm tired of constantly wondering if this is going to be the time that he doesn't make it back."
"Unfortunately, I doubt locking Mr. Stark inside the Tower will do much good for any period of time." He was joking, of course, but all of them were good at deflecting.
"I guess it helps that that's not entirely what I had in mind, then." Though, if she was being perfectly honest with herself, she'd definitely considered it.
JARVIS paused for another moment that likely felt longer to him than it did to Pepper. "Did you have something in mind, Miss Potts?" He thought he knew, but there was always the possibility that he was wrong - and suggesting it wasn't remotely near the place he had assigned himself.
"I was thinking it might not be so bad if he had someone else there to watch his back." She paused, drew her bottom lip into her mouth for a moment, and then continued. "And you know as well as I do that Rhodey's not always available."
"I am required to deny any knowledge of Lieutenant Rhodes's schedule and whereabouts," JARVIS deadpanned in response to that because he felt he should. "But yes, I am aware."
Amusement flickered across her face, there and then gone. "Then I'm sure you're aware of what I'm getting at, too."
"Mr. Stark would not be pleased with the idea of you in the field." He was sure she knew that already, but he felt it needed to be mentioned.
"Mister Stark doesn't need to know, nor would he have any say in the matter if he did," she replied.
Again, JARVIS fell silent for a moment. He still wasn't entirely sure this wasn't one of the worst ideas he had ever heard, or how he felt about lying to Tony - but they were in agreement on the most important thing: the matter of Tony's safety. "Agreed," he said, finally. "Mister Stark has more access to my systems - and those of the Iron Man - than he did before the attack." Obadiah's, that is, but he didn't want to go there. "I will be able to block that access, as well as diverting materials to provide armor more suited for your needs."
Pepper wasn't all that sure that this would go down in history as one of her better ideas, either -- or that she hadn't completely lost her mind due to not sleeping -- but she was, at very least, determined to both go through with it and make it count for something. She breathed out a sigh when JARVIS finally agreed. Without him, all the resolve in the world wouldn't have meant anything.
"I -- okay." She nodded once, sharply, as she gathered her thoughts. "Okay, I think I need a crash course in how this all actually works before you put anything together. And I think we need to talk about what I'll actually be doing. I don't want to be a walking armory -- " Not like the War Machine or even the Iron Man armor, itself. " -- I just ... "
There was some vague amusement to JARVIS's tone when he answered. "Aside from his first tests, Mister Stark came to understand the operation of the Iron Man easily enough, and he did not have the holodeck at his disposal. I can prepare you scenarios and tutorials." The difference in his tone from a moment ago was obvious, too; he was clearly trying to be reassuring, now. If they were going to do this, she needed to be confident in it, since tentativeness would only end in someone being hurt. "As for the other," he continued, "I'll need you to finish that sentence."
"I think that might be a good idea," she agreed. It was what she'd been thinking when she'd suggested some kind of training. "And I'll ... get back to you on the rest. We can try a few different configurations out and see what works best for both of us."
"I am at your disposal," he promised. "I assume you would like this kept secret from the other Avengers as well." Keeping it all secret from Tony was one thing; keeping it from everyone in the Tower would take even more careful planning.
"Considering most if not all of them would out me to Tony?" Maybe not Natasha and Clint, since they were used to keeping secrets, but she couldn't say for sure. "That's probably not a bad idea."
There was another moment of silence from him, this one just accepting of her decision. Then, though, there was something else he needed to say, "And Miss Potts. If you should happen to change your mind ... " All she had to do was let him know, and all the evidence would disappear. He didn't expect her to change her mind, considering he knew how she would stand by a decision once it was made, but the option still had to be there.
"I won't." She was pretty sure she'd have her doubts -- a part of her already did -- but again, anything was better than having to sit by helplessly time and time again until Tony eventually got himself killed. "But I appreciate the out."
Even if he had never actually used a hologram or had a face, there was a smile evident in his voice. "I know. But I felt it necessary."
She allowed his disembodied voice a small, fond smile and turned away from the armor. It evaporated a moment later and with a sigh.
"If no one's on the holodeck -- " She felt ridiculous calling it that. " -- we could start working on this now, if you felt up for it. I know I should probably try to get some sleep first -- " She felt even more so saying that, considering all the times she'd nagged Tony to give it a very literal rest. " -- but I get the feeling that's still not in the cards. Not yet, anyway."
JARVIS himself still felt ridiculous calling it that, but if Tony and Bruce had ever actually intended to rename it to something less likely to cause legal action to be taken against them, they seemed to have forgotten it now. "There is no one in the holodeck," he confirmed. If she hadn't already said it, he would have suggested she wait until she had managed to sleep, but he knew how sleep tended to work for everyone in the Tower. None of them did it as often as he would like.
She nodded, started for the door and then paused, glancing down at her outfit. "Should I change? I should probably change."
"Something more suited to easy movement would be advisable, yes," JARVIS agreed, the warmth back in his voice. "I will take the time to prepare a scenario."
"I'll meet you down there in a few minutes, then." And yes, she realized how silly that was, too, when JARVIS was technically everywhere within the Tower, but she made no attempt to correct herself. Instead, she simply allowed him another smile and headed for the door.
Some twenty minutes later and as promised, she was headed into the holodeck. She'd exchanged the blouse and skirt she'd been wearing for a tank top and workout pants, and switched out her heels for a pair of sneakers that had been sitting in the back of her closet for some time, untouched, a gift from some company Tony had had a deal with at one point or another. She'd tied her hair back, too, just in case; if the suit's helmet couldn't fit over it, she could always take it down.
JARVIS didn't respond to that, simply falling silent as she left. He turned his attention first to keeping Tony's attention off them. Twice since Tony had gained the technopathy, he had accused JARVIS of talking in his sleep, when some stray process had bled over. If Tony happened to overhear what they were working on, now, he could likely find an excuse, but it would also be likely to make him suspicious.
The equivalent of white noise in place, JARVIS sectioned off a portion of the Tower's hard drive, creating a private drive and burying it deeper in his own data. Tony might notice the new subfolders, but JARVIS knew from past experience that it would be a while, and again, he could likely find an excuse.
Finally, he reached for the holodeck's programming. By the time Pepper entered the room, there was a holographic representation of a suit waiting on her. It looked like a slimmer, lighter version of the Iron Man, more suited for Pepper's measurements. It was unpainted, the plain silver of all the prototypes. It did have the same weapons, though, but he could change those depending on what she wanted. For now, it was just somewhere for them to start.
Pepper took a lap around the suit, reaching out to touch it once as she went -- it felt real, the metal cool and solid under her fingertips, and for not the first time since Tony had first shown it to her, she was impressed by what he and Bruce had managed to accomplish here. She shook her head faintly when she'd finished her inspection, more than a little awed, and then took a step backwards.
"How do we do this?" She knew that Tony had assembly arrays for putting on the armor, but she also knew that then, it was usually in pieces, packed away somewhere under the floor and not already assembled and on display. She also had no idea if JARVIS wanted to talk about what she wanted the armor to be able to do, first, or if he had something in mind beyond putting her immediately in the armor to start her off.
"Where would you like to start? This suit shares the weapons array and functionalities of the Iron Man, and I can mimic the weight and bulk of the actual suit. Would you like to start there?" He meant to let her get used to moving in it. Tony wasn't on the ground all that much, and JARVIS didn't expect Pepper to be, but it was the most basic of first steps.
She considered that for a moment and then nodded. "That's probably a good place."
"Step forward, Miss Potts," he returned, the eyes in the suit lighting up as he brought it online.
Pepper took a deep breath, raised her chin a little and, as ordered, stepped up to the suit. As nervous as she was all of a sudden, however -- oh, God, she was actually doing this -- she did not falter or hesitate.
The suit shifted as she approached, almost coming to life. There was a moment of hesitation as JARVIS adjusted the projectors - and then the suit took a step forward, going suddenly intangible as JARVIS overlayed it over Pepper until she was covered but for the suit's faceplate. It, he left raised, not wanting to overwhelm her and giving her time to adjust to the potentially claustrophobic feeling.
She tensed slightly as the suit settled over her, and as the weight of it became reality, she was almost grateful for it. It was heavier than she was expecting, which, she supposed, was probably silly, given that she knew that it must be so considering what it was made of and what purpose it was meant to serve, but it still gave her pause. The fact that it covered her entirely wasn't so bad; the weight would take some getting used to, and she moved a little, testing it.
"You have control of the suit," JARVIS offered, somewhat obviously. "Should you wish to lower the faceplate, there is a small light at the right corner that follows eye movement. Look at it for a second." A literal second, he meant. A fair bit of lowering the faceplate was at the suit computer's discretion - whether that was JARVIS for Tony and Pepper or the less sophisticated system installed on the War Machine - but there were ways to make it happen on purpose, as well.
Pepper assumed JARVIS was measuring time literally, nodded once, and drew her lower lip into her mouth glancing in the direction he had indicated. Despite the fact that she had been expecting it, she still started a little when the faceplate swung down over her face. A small, embarrassed smile followed. She knew that jumping had nothing on Tony almost putting himself through the wall in the garage in Malibu, but still.
"Okay," she said, mostly to herself and once her moment of embarrassment passed. She took a handful of steps forward, trying to get used to the movement and the weight of the suit -- oh, she was going to be sore after this -- and then, "You should probably teach me how to read the HUD, to start." Some of it was fairly obvious, but there were a handful of indicators she had no idea what meant.
JARVIS didn't react to her startle other than to add, "There is an icon in the same location on the HUD that will raise the faceplate."
He fell silent again as she moved forward, speaking up again after she did. "The HUD is also customizable. Lieutenant Rhodes's interface is different than Mister Stark's." The one she was seeing changed as he spoke as he flicked from Rhodey's to Tony's to show the difference, leaving Tony's up to use as an example. "There are icons at the bottom left that allow you to shift from one mode to another with a glance, to bring weapons online or offline, to check the condition of the suit, or to bring up the suit's communications." He shifted the view to the basic functions. "The indicators at the bottom center show your position in relation to the horizon while in flight. To the right are your altimeter and speedometers; above that, your radar; and your directional heading, in the right-hand corner." He stopped again, giving her time to process that and to voice any questions.
"Wow," was all she managed, feeling all at once overwhelmed. She'd picked up a few things here and there from Tony or from listening to him and Rhodey talk, but this was -- well, now she was the one with a lot of homework and she wasn't even sure where to start. Or how.
JARVIS seemed to realize that, and his tone was gentle when he responded. "Lieutenant Rhodes has been a member of the Air Force for over twenty years, now, and Mister Stark has been using the Iron Man for almost four. With practice, reading it will become second nature."
Pepper nodded once, faintly. "I figured. It's just a lot to take in. I had no idea." A beat and then she amended, "Well, I had some idea, but ... "
"I can transfer a diagram of the screens to your tablet, if you would like." He wasn't going to encourage her to obsess over it, but he also knew she would be happier if she could look over it on her own time.
"I would," she agreed.
Not that she was going to drop everything right now to go pursue it, as much as she felt it would probably help. She had no idea how much time they had down here before someone was banging on the door, wanting to use the holodeck, and she wanted to make the most of it. The faster she learned, the more practical experience she got, the less a chance that someone would catch wind of what she and JARVIS were up to. Plus, well, chances were she'd at least pick up a little of how to read the HUD just by actually doing something.
That in mind, she nibbled at her lower lip briefly, and then asked, "So is crashing into a wall part of the experience, or can we try flying without that?"
Though Tony had never programmed a subroutine for JARVIS to laugh, and though JARVIS had never gone in search of one, there was laughter clear in his voice when he responded. "I believe that is optional." He paused a moment before going on, slightly more seriously. "I assume you would like to give it a try."
"It might help me get a handle on how to read some of the displays," she said by way of agreement. She also imagined that, like Tony, she'd be spending more time in the air than on the ground.
"It would," JARVIS agreed. As much as he had encouraged Tony to wait for him to run more tests on the first suits, this was far from the first suit, and he was more comfortable with the idea of it all, now. "Like the faceplate, the suit's computer controls the thrusters based on the movements and tension of your muscles. The key to operation of the suit is to work with the flight computer." He paused a moment before adding, "In your case, and in Mister Stark's case, to work with me. I promise as long as I am online, and especially in these scenarios, that I will not let you fall."
Pepper made a small noise, words failing her for the time being as tears sprung to her eyes.
Barring the first few weeks she'd worked for Stark Industries and before she got to really know JARVIS, she had never really doubted that he had their best intentions in mind or that he worked tirelessly to keep them safe, but between standing there in Tony's suit, JARVIS all around her, from the ground to the walls to the armor itself, and hearing that, it struck her all over again. She felt all at once protected and safe, for more than just the suit, and it worked wonders on her nerves. She wondered if this was how Tony felt. She wondered, without rancor, if this was why he had trusted JARVIS with the knowledge that he was dying, back during the whole palladium mess, when he hadn't even been able to tell her.
Blinking rapidly, she reached up to brush at her eyes, stopped herself when she realized that, between the gauntlets and the faceplate, she really couldn't, and breathed out a sigh, equal parts frustrated and amused. It took her a moment or two more after that to collect herself.
"I trust you," she said finally and when she felt she could trust herself and her voice again.
JARVIS stayed silent while she worked through her emotions. He and Tony had had a similar exchange after Stane's first attack, and it had seemed to affect him the same way as it was Pepper, now. It wasn't that JARVIS didn't understand why they reacted the way they did to what he had said -- he did have the capability for emotion -- but the fact remained that it was his responsibility to take care of them -- Tony and whoever he called friend -- however he could. It was at least some small part of why Tony had created him, after all.
His voice was warm when he responded. "Thank you, Miss Potts."
She allowed him a small, shaky smile. "You're welcome."
Another long pause followed, her expression and stance steeling as she tried to keep herself from falling back into and getting stuck in that loop of thought. She managed, albeit barely she felt, let out a long, slow breath, and cleared her throat as she refocused. "Can you put me on top of the house in Malibu without ... " Without doing like Tony did and taking a series of unfortunate detours to the garage.
She was, for some reason and suddenly, a little homesick for California and a simpler time -- not necessarily before Tony became Iron Man, but before the Avengers, when it was just her and her boys -- and beyond that, she felt that taking a flight out over the ocean might be a bit easier than trying to navigate the skyscraper obstacle course that was New York. She'd get to that in due time, but unlike Tony, she wasn't above learning metaphorically to walk first.
There was amusement in his voice again when he answered, now. "Of course, Miss Potts."
Pepper might not have had as much experience with the holodeck as the Avengers, but she had still been in it enough that he didn't feel the need to warn her before it changed. There was that strange sense of motion as the white walls faded away, replaced by California at dusk, the sun already set, the stars just starting to break through the clear sky. There was a faint breeze off the ocean, and the HUD immediately changed to reflect the speed and direction of that wind.
As requested, Pepper was standing on the roof, actually almost exactly where Tony had fallen through after his first flight. The mansion was silent beneath her, though the lights were on, warmth spilling through the glass, her own lighthouse on the cliff to help find her way back in case she went too far out.
Without thinking, Pepper reached up to touch her fingers to her mouth, struck not by the sudden sensation of movement but by the view. She'd seen it before, hundreds of times even, but for some reason, this was different and for more than just the angle. It was amazing and it made her heart ache for Malibu that much more.
The faint clink of metal on metal drawing her out of her thoughts, she dropped her hand, and took a half-step towards the edge of the roof. "What do you think, JARVIS? Running start, or should I do it like Rhodey does?" Hands held tightly at his sides, palms down.
"That is your choice." Then, his tone changed, going more like it usually was when he was talking to Tony - dry, but not without amusement. "For your first test, I might suggest some caution, though, as Mister Stark has reminded me on many occasions, that is only my suggestion."
And if she needed to literally jump into things to get her nerves under control, he wouldn't actually blame her for it.
Despite telling herself she'd play it safe and JARVIS' suggestion, she was more than a little tempted to just throw herself off the edge of the house and see what happened. That would be the easiest way to kill any lingering reservations she had, after all. She seemed to think better of it before too long, however -- she was nervous, not stupid -- and drew herself up a little taller, flattening her palms level with the roof.
"Caution it is," she murmured. A deep breath followed, and then and again at JARVIS' suggestion, she tensed and fired off the repulsors.
Despite Tony's feelings on caution, his first runs with the suit had set the basis for the default power level used in a normal, unhurried take-off. Her feet left the ground immediately, and she continued rising slowly and steadily.
JARVIS was silent until she was a few feet above the roof, and there was approval in his voice when he spoke. "We are still in the holodeck," he reminded her, though he knew it wasn't necessary. "You won't hit the walls, but anything else you hit won't be damaged." He wasn't going to move mountains out of the way, but he also stood by his promise - if she did hit anything here, while she was learning, it wouldn't actually hurt her.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she teased absently, busying herself with trying to figure out how to stop, to hover.
"I have every confidence, Miss Potts. I am only acting on the known history of first flights," he teased back. Rhodey's had been smooth enough, but he'd had a bit of a leg up on Tony or Pepper, considering his history with the Air Force. "Forward or reverse motion is achieved by angling your body," he put in more neutrally a moment later. "Hovering is a combination of a power reduction through the repulsors and balance." He loaded a picture of Tony hovering to the HUD, to give her reference.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but Tony's not exactly a good role model," Pepper replied, glancing briefly at the image. She frowned faintly, trying to force herself to relax a little, to ease up on the power output of the repulsors. Balance, she could do well enough -- spending most days in three to six inch heels had given her that in spades -- but getting the rest of it right was a process of trial and error.
"But there's a reason I picked Malibu over, say, New York, even so," she continued, once she felt she had it. Regardless of whether or not she could hurt or be hurt, for the time being, this was a learning experience, she didn't expect it to go entirely smoothly, and she had no real desire to accidentally destroy a city, fictional or otherwise.
"I might have," JARVIS returned casually, "but in this instance, it might be for the best. We probably should not tell him that, though."
He fell silent again as he gave her time to get used to it. "I thought that might be the case. You are doing well."
"Probably not," Pepper agreed, a smile that was both amused and satisfied tugging at the corners of her lips. It faded into something vaguely self-depreciating after a moment. "We'll see how you feel about how well I'm doing once we get moving."
That said, she angled foward inch by inch, trying to get some forward motion to get out over the ocean without potentially shooting herself across it like some alien skipping stone.
"You may find it easier if you increase the power output from the repulsors again," JARVIS offered. He could adjust things for her, but only to a point, and only in certain situations, and, in the end, wouldn't actually help.
"Probably," she answered somewhat sheepishly before doing as JARVIS had suggested. It worked like a charm, too, sending her soaring out over the ocean without, thankfully, putting her into it. She was silent for a moment afterwards, marveling over how amazing this was -- oh, my God, she was flying --and wondering again if this was how Tony felt, and then she asked, "I'm guessing it's a combination of that and body angle to change how high I'm flying and to turn, but what about stopping?"
Or, more specifically, stopping quickly. Coming to a gradual stop seemed easy enough -- if she relaxed, if she took some of the power out of the repulsors, she'd get there eventually -- but somehow, pulling her hands out from under her to push herself backwards in an effort to stop on a dime seemed like a recipe for disaster.
"It is," JARVIS agreed. "In their current position" - feet flat, hands at her sides - "you will follow the position of your body." He was trying not to be critical on her first run, but he knew how Tony had improved as a pilot over the years they had been the Iron Man. "You are not a plank of wood, however. Feel free to relax, to move in the air. Adjusting the position of the gauntlets or boots will also adjust your trajectory.
"Stopping quickly will require you to be comfortable moving in the air." He loaded a short video clip to the HUD, this time. "If you bring yourself upright and also use the gauntlets to halt your forward motion, you will come to a more abrupt stop."
"Guess we'll get to that later," Pepper mumbled, more for her own benefit than for JARVIS'. If the video was any indication, apparently she'd been wrong about how to excecute a sudden stop -- or at least wrong in thinking it was a terrible idea. As JARVIS had pointed out, however, she wasn't quite comfortable enough to put it into practice just yet.
"Mister Stark experienced problems with stopping and landing on his first flights with the Mark III. This is your first test. You'll catch up with him." JARVIS sounded sure of that, too. "Might I suggest continuing to get accustomed to basic maneuvers for now."
"I hadn't even thought about landing," she said, a wry smile coming to her lips. Despite JARVIS' reassurances, she had the sudden feeling Tony was about to be one of two people guilty for destroying part of the house, even if hers was fictional. "But sticking to the basics probably isn't a bad idea -- or at least until I can stop being a plank of wood."
The smile turned teasing, briefly, and then she sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth and tried to focus herself on relaxing a little.
JARVIS's tone was just as wry when he responded, "I feel certain you and Mister Stark have that in common." Which of them he was teasing more was hard to determine.
"You can take things on your own time, of course," he proposed more seriously a moment later, "or I can provide you either a projection to follow or targets to pass through." He was taking a page from countless video games, of course, but he thought it was an industry trope for a reason.
"Either or might not be a bad idea," Pepper answered after brief consideration and in reference to JARVIS' mention of projections or targets. "I'm not sure how well I'll be able to follow whatever you pull up, but it's probably better than me trying to -- to plank it all the way to China."
"That is impossible," JARVIS returned dryly. "I have not loaded the entire Pacific Ocean to this program." He was still teasing, obviously, but he thought she might need to keep from getting too serious. He followed his own pattern a moment later, though, and turned more serious a moment later. "I will provide you with a path to follow, beginning with a low difficulty. As you feel comfortable, I can increase the difficulty."
There was a faint shimmer, and a series of rings appeared. They were set roughly twenty feet apart and at varying angles from each other, something like a slalom course. As they appeared, the HUD locked onto the first one, showing the ideal path between them. The path eventually looped back around to where she had taken off from.
"My mistake," Pepper shot back. A pause followed as the rings appeared and she slowly cut a little of the power to the repulsors to slow, angling upwards as she did so, in an effort to slow to a stop. When she'd managed, albeit a little awkwardly, she took a moment to follow the path with her eyes, watching as each ring lit up, one right after the other, highlighted by the HUD as she tracked them, and then returned her attentions to the start of the course.
They could talk about increasing the difficulty later, once she'd had this down. For now, she took a deep breath, held it briefly, and as she let it out, asked, "You ready?"
JARVIS didn't comment on her stop, simply because it was better than the abrupt cut of power both Tony and Rhodey tended toward. It might be more dramatic, but there were smoother ways to do it.
He was also fully prepared to let her set the pace on all this - he could push her without rushing her. "Whenever you are, Miss Potts," he returned immediately.
"Okay. Let's do this, then."
That said and without waiting for the creeping nervousness she was starting to feel to catch up with her, she shifted, putting power back into the repulsors, and headed for the first of the rings at an easy pace. This wasn't about being fast -- this was, for now, about being accurate and trying to learn to put the displays to good use. Maybe later, once she'd gotten the hang of things and she and JARVIS were almost to the point of making her a real suit, it would be, if only so she could get to Tony before God only knew whatever else did, but not now. And so, once she'd cleared the first ring, she moved for the second at the same speed, then the one after that, then the one after that, her maneuvering slowly gaining solidity as she went.
JARVIS stayed silent as she moved forward, letting her keep her attention on the HUD. Its readings changed as she moved, tracking her speed and position in relation to the horizon. After the first few rings had passed, he did speak up, offering, "You're doing very well."
She wasn't entirely sure if JARVIS was being honest or just humoring her, but either way, she couldn't help but smile faintly. "Thank you."
Following that, she said nothing for a long moment, focused on clearing the rings, and then tentatively and as it occurred to her, she started, "When we do this in actuality -- or when I graduate from chasing rings, and onto something bigger, even, I guess -- can you patch me into everyone else's comms? I don't want to have a conversation with them, I just -- it would help if I could hear what was going on." She wasn't sure how much of a risk that would be, though, considering Tony's new skill set.
It was all honest, actually - holograms or no, she hadn't managed to run into anything, which was more than Tony could say. "You're welcome."
"I can. Blocking Mr. Stark or the other Avengers from listening to you will be a simple enough process as I patch the comms through the Iron Man." He paused for a moment before adding, "And if you did wish to speak to them, I could alter your voice."
"That might be a good idea, comms or not." If she had her way, the Avengers wouldn't have the chance to talk to her at all -- the less direct interaction she had with them outside of battles, the better, as far as her not being found out went -- but she wasn't Tony. She knew the world didn't always bend to her whims.
"The first time Mr. Stark took the suit out for more than practice, I altered his voice. Of course, it was less important afterwards" - after he announced to the world who he was - "but I will take care of it, whatever should happen." Scrambling a signal was child's play, really, when it came to everything else JARVIS was capable of.
Pepper hummed, dimly amused by the idea that Tony had ever tried to conceal his identity, and pulled herself into another slow stop as she cleared the last of the rings. A mumbled word of thanks followed as her amusement faded, distant if only because she was trying to work out how to land without specifically asking -- and without ending up in the garage, despite JARVIS' promises that that wouldn't happen -- and carefully, she took more power out of the repulsors a little at a time until her feet were touching the roof again. For a moment following, she stood still, a cringe on her face as she expected the worst, and when nothing came, she breathed out a sigh and finally allowed herself to relax.
"I'm guessing that was better than any landing Tony's made, well, ever?" She'd seen the footage. She knew Tony had a habit of leaving craters where ever he stopped.
JARVIS had clips ready, again, to show her how Tony and Rhodey both landed, but they were clearly unnecessary. There was amusement in his voice when he answered. "Mr. Stark and Colonel Rhodes, for that matter." The latter was just as bad at leaving craters, really.
"And Colonel Rhodes," Pepper repeated, her amusement returning as she turned back to face the ocean. Another moment of sobering and silence followed, homesickness rising and falling away like the ocean below her, and then she breathed out a sigh. "Is it bad that I think I'm ready to call it a night?"
She didn't know when she'd get the chance to come back down here and practice more, after all, but days of barely sleeping and, more recently, carrying around the weight of the suit were starting to catch up with her. Not that she hadn't been feeling it before, but it was that much harder to ignore, now.
Even if she hadn't said that out loud, JARVIS was going to. "Using the suit takes some adjustment. Between that and your lack of sleep over the last few days, it is not at all bad, Miss Potts. You made excellent progress, if I do say so."
"Thank you," Pepper responded, bowing her head briefly, gratefully. When she looked up again, it was to return her attentions to the sea, even if she wasn't quite so focused on it, now. "Before we get out of here ... do you think it would be possible to set up some kind of schedule for this? I mean, we could probably make up some story about how I'm down here working on my backhand, right?"
If she felt a stab of guilt over the idea of having to lie to Tony, she squashed it quickly.
"You're welcome," he said again. "I can certainly block time off for you." JARVIS knew her schedule, but that didn't stop him from asking, "Do you have a preference as to when?"
She took a moment to consider that, then finally, slowly shook her head. "As long as you don't expect me to drag myself down here at any point before my morning coffee, I don't, no."
"I would never ask you to do such a thing," JARVIS answered, sounding apparently offended by the very suggestion. He was serious again when he went on, though. "I will set something up for you and send it to your tablet."
"Just checking," she shot back, fighting a smile. When the urge passed, just as seriously and most likely for her own benefit, since she doubted JARVIS would have forgotten, she continued, "That and the pictures of the displays we talked about."
"They are on their way," he agreed. "Is there anything else I can do for you here, Miss Potts?"
"I think we're done here." A beat and then, despite the fact that she was becoming something of a broken record for all the times she'd said it in the last few minutes, she added, "Thanks, JARVIS."
Malibu dissolved around them until she was standing again in the empty space that made up the holodeck - and then, a moment later, the suit itself disappeared. And even though she had thanked him several times in the last few minutes and he had acknowledged them all, his tone was warm when he said, "You are very welcome."
Apparently disappointed with the loss of Malibu, Pepper let out a wistful breath of a sigh and turned to head towards the doors. As she reached them, she paused, one hand falling to the frame. "Let Tony know I'm headed up to bed?"
The holodeck's doors opened as she reached them. "I will let him know."
Another thank you followed, more heart-felt than anything she had offered thus far and for more than just telling Tony she was going to try and get some sleep, and then she was on her way out.
What: Following this, Pepper decides she's had enough and convinces JARVIS to teach her how to pilot an Iron Man suit.
After the battle with the spider creature, Tony had gone to bed and slept, more or less, the entire night through. Pepper, on the other hand, hadn't, and in the two or three days that had followed, hadn't managed more than a few hours at best. She'd excused herself by telling Tony she'd had an important meeting she needed to prepare for, and while that wasn't entirely untrue, her sudden inability to sleep had less to do with board members, clients and pitches, and more to do with the fact that she'd stumbled upon a ruined shirt in one of the drawers in Tony's favored lab, still wet with his blood.
She hadn't been looking for it, hadn't even been suspicious that Tony had gotten himself hurt despite how worrying the last few minutes of video someone had posted to YouTube in the aftermath of the battle had looked. She'd only been looking for Tony, and then, when she hadn't found him and had gotten a phone call from her secretary, a pen, and instead, she'd found that. A part of her wished she hadn't. Another part of her wished Tony -- or Bruce or Steve or JARVIS -- had said something to her, had told her the truth, so she wouldn't have had to find out like that. Yet another part hated all of them for not being able to protect him.
She'd stood there for a good ten minutes, in fact, her fingertips buried in Tony's shirt, silently running the gamut of emotions from fury to fear, and then finally, she'd shoved the thing back into its drawer, and left. She was half certain she'd told JARVIS not to tell Tony what she'd discovered; she was positive now, even running on three hours of sleep in three days, that she had hung up on her secretary and never called her back. She supposed she probably should have at least done the latter, but at the moment, it all seemed so trivial. Tony had almost died --
God, how was he not dead with that much blood? Maybe she was worrying too much, maybe it wasn't as much as she thought, but it seemed like so much.
-- Tony had almost died. Again. And a part of her had decided somewhere between finding the shirt and now that she was tired of it. She was tired of being the last to know. She was tired of bein the worrying girlfriend. She was angry, she was hurt, she was so Goddamn tired, and hell if she was going to stand by and watch Tony nearly kill himself again and again and again. She'd had enough. She'd had enough last time, with the palladium -- the wormhole didn't count in her mind, since he'd tried, he called and she hadn't answered, and neither did Stane's attack, since technically, he hadn't walked into that one -- and this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Yelling wouldn't do anything, though, she knew that one all too well. She needed something else. Something like a suit of armor all her own, maybe, so she could protect Tony or keep him from doing something stupid or at least be there and not have to find out something had happened, second hand and through ruined linens. It was probably insane and Tony would probably kill her if he found out, but right now, she didn't care. All she cared about was never having to find another bloody t-shirt, stuffed haphazardly in a drawer again.
And that probably explained why now she was standing in front of the line of previous armors Tony had constructed and worn, staring at them as if she could will one out of their case and onto her.
JARVIS didn't sleep. There were, of course, times that he would shut down certain processes for the maintenance procedures Tony had written him, but it had been years since he had been fully offline. But, even as he shut down parts of himself, there were always others online, running tests and compiling results for Tony, or Bruce, or Doctors Foster, Ross, or Selvig; maintaining the security of the Tower; remaining ready to speak up if it should happen that any of the people under his watch should have need of him.
And there were parts of him that were constantly learning, processing security footage to better understand body language, scanning the internet for news articles to better understand the world outside the Tower, updating language banks. And, more and more frequently, reviewing footage taken from the Iron Man, to better learn how to protect Tony.
There had been nothing he could do inside the trailer. He could reach the nanotechnology on some level, could send and receive the most basic signals through his new connection to Tony, but affecting them any deeper than that was outside his capabilities. He had felt the moment they moved to repair the damage, had registered the depth and severity of it based on their response, but he had been as powerless as the other Avengers until the moment the suit had deployed and come online.
It had not been as long as the three months they had searched, or the hours Obadiah had turned him useless -- twice, now -- but it had still been one of the longest moments of his existence.
Tony had told him to keep silent, and he did still keep Tony's secrets, even though he frequently disagreed with the order, and so, he had not told Pepper. He had also done nothing to direct her away from finding the ruined flight shirt, though he likely could have, and he wondered at himself for that - though not for long.
He knew Tony needed help. He knew it as surely as James or the other Avengers seemed to. And, like them, he knew that Tony was far more likely to die trying to do things himself than ever admitting to it. Which was why he felt certain he and Pepper were of the same mind as she stood in front of the armor.
He also knew that, if they were, Tony was not going to like it. Even knowing that, though, didn't stop him from asking, "May I help you, Miss Potts?"
Pepper pulled her eyes away from the armor, though unlike the tendancy towards it some of the others in the Tower still had, she didn't look up. Instead, she blew out a breath through her nose and shook her head a little, the gesture more from frustration than anything else. "Honestly, JARVIS, I don't know."
"You haven't been sleeping," he prompted, and there was something gently chiding to his voice. He worried about all those Tony had close ties to, based on how it would affect Tony should something happen to them -- but there were just as many of them that JARVIS worried about simply because JARVIS himself liked them. Pepper had been near the top of that list longer than most.
"I'm aware of that, thank you," she shot back, offering him a small, sharp smile. She paused, closed her eyes for a moment, and breathed out another sigh. "I'm sorry, I'm just -- I'm worried about Tony."
JARVIS knew better than to take her tone personally - he was aware enough to have what counted for feelings, but all Tony's AIs knew when ire was real and directed at them - and when it wasn't, considering sarcasm was one of the first greater concepts they had been taught. "I doubt you're alone in that regard, considering the conversations Mr. Stark had with Agent Romanoff and Doctor Banner."
"I know." Tony had failed to mention either of them had had words with him, but it didn't surprise her that they had. "But I also know that, knowing him, it went in one ear and out the other -- or that he'll forget whatever they said to him the next time they go out to deal with ... whatever."
Logically, she knew it wasn't intentional -- Tony's insecurities and his hero complex, among other things, made it hard for him to stop and think things through before he did them, when the fate of the city or the world was at stake. At the moment, though, she was half certain that he jumped in front of the proverbial oncoming bus without waiting for help in an spectacular effort to be difficult.
"Mr. Stark's history would support that possibility," JARVIS admitted. "Though there is the possibility that Agent Romanoff or Doctor Banner will cause greater damage if he does." There was also the possibility that the next time wouldn't end with anyone having a chance to say something to him, but those were scenarios JARVIS was careful never to run.
"There's also the possibility that they might not get the chance," Pepper supplied, taking care to keep both her tone and her expression neutral.
JARVIS was silent for a long moment before he returned, equally neutrally, "Indeed."
Pepper looked away, her mask faltering, and pressed her lips into a thin line. For a moment following, it looked like she was about to say something, ask something, but the words never came. In the end, and after a long silence, she shook her head and looked up, her eyes returning to the armor in their cases. "It's not that I don't trust Agent Romanoff or Doctor Banner or you to take care of Tony, but I feel like I need to do something to keep that possibility from happening. I'm tired of constantly wondering if this is going to be the time that he doesn't make it back."
"Unfortunately, I doubt locking Mr. Stark inside the Tower will do much good for any period of time." He was joking, of course, but all of them were good at deflecting.
"I guess it helps that that's not entirely what I had in mind, then." Though, if she was being perfectly honest with herself, she'd definitely considered it.
JARVIS paused for another moment that likely felt longer to him than it did to Pepper. "Did you have something in mind, Miss Potts?" He thought he knew, but there was always the possibility that he was wrong - and suggesting it wasn't remotely near the place he had assigned himself.
"I was thinking it might not be so bad if he had someone else there to watch his back." She paused, drew her bottom lip into her mouth for a moment, and then continued. "And you know as well as I do that Rhodey's not always available."
"I am required to deny any knowledge of Lieutenant Rhodes's schedule and whereabouts," JARVIS deadpanned in response to that because he felt he should. "But yes, I am aware."
Amusement flickered across her face, there and then gone. "Then I'm sure you're aware of what I'm getting at, too."
"Mr. Stark would not be pleased with the idea of you in the field." He was sure she knew that already, but he felt it needed to be mentioned.
"Mister Stark doesn't need to know, nor would he have any say in the matter if he did," she replied.
Again, JARVIS fell silent for a moment. He still wasn't entirely sure this wasn't one of the worst ideas he had ever heard, or how he felt about lying to Tony - but they were in agreement on the most important thing: the matter of Tony's safety. "Agreed," he said, finally. "Mister Stark has more access to my systems - and those of the Iron Man - than he did before the attack." Obadiah's, that is, but he didn't want to go there. "I will be able to block that access, as well as diverting materials to provide armor more suited for your needs."
Pepper wasn't all that sure that this would go down in history as one of her better ideas, either -- or that she hadn't completely lost her mind due to not sleeping -- but she was, at very least, determined to both go through with it and make it count for something. She breathed out a sigh when JARVIS finally agreed. Without him, all the resolve in the world wouldn't have meant anything.
"I -- okay." She nodded once, sharply, as she gathered her thoughts. "Okay, I think I need a crash course in how this all actually works before you put anything together. And I think we need to talk about what I'll actually be doing. I don't want to be a walking armory -- " Not like the War Machine or even the Iron Man armor, itself. " -- I just ... "
There was some vague amusement to JARVIS's tone when he answered. "Aside from his first tests, Mister Stark came to understand the operation of the Iron Man easily enough, and he did not have the holodeck at his disposal. I can prepare you scenarios and tutorials." The difference in his tone from a moment ago was obvious, too; he was clearly trying to be reassuring, now. If they were going to do this, she needed to be confident in it, since tentativeness would only end in someone being hurt. "As for the other," he continued, "I'll need you to finish that sentence."
"I think that might be a good idea," she agreed. It was what she'd been thinking when she'd suggested some kind of training. "And I'll ... get back to you on the rest. We can try a few different configurations out and see what works best for both of us."
"I am at your disposal," he promised. "I assume you would like this kept secret from the other Avengers as well." Keeping it all secret from Tony was one thing; keeping it from everyone in the Tower would take even more careful planning.
"Considering most if not all of them would out me to Tony?" Maybe not Natasha and Clint, since they were used to keeping secrets, but she couldn't say for sure. "That's probably not a bad idea."
There was another moment of silence from him, this one just accepting of her decision. Then, though, there was something else he needed to say, "And Miss Potts. If you should happen to change your mind ... " All she had to do was let him know, and all the evidence would disappear. He didn't expect her to change her mind, considering he knew how she would stand by a decision once it was made, but the option still had to be there.
"I won't." She was pretty sure she'd have her doubts -- a part of her already did -- but again, anything was better than having to sit by helplessly time and time again until Tony eventually got himself killed. "But I appreciate the out."
Even if he had never actually used a hologram or had a face, there was a smile evident in his voice. "I know. But I felt it necessary."
She allowed his disembodied voice a small, fond smile and turned away from the armor. It evaporated a moment later and with a sigh.
"If no one's on the holodeck -- " She felt ridiculous calling it that. " -- we could start working on this now, if you felt up for it. I know I should probably try to get some sleep first -- " She felt even more so saying that, considering all the times she'd nagged Tony to give it a very literal rest. " -- but I get the feeling that's still not in the cards. Not yet, anyway."
JARVIS himself still felt ridiculous calling it that, but if Tony and Bruce had ever actually intended to rename it to something less likely to cause legal action to be taken against them, they seemed to have forgotten it now. "There is no one in the holodeck," he confirmed. If she hadn't already said it, he would have suggested she wait until she had managed to sleep, but he knew how sleep tended to work for everyone in the Tower. None of them did it as often as he would like.
She nodded, started for the door and then paused, glancing down at her outfit. "Should I change? I should probably change."
"Something more suited to easy movement would be advisable, yes," JARVIS agreed, the warmth back in his voice. "I will take the time to prepare a scenario."
"I'll meet you down there in a few minutes, then." And yes, she realized how silly that was, too, when JARVIS was technically everywhere within the Tower, but she made no attempt to correct herself. Instead, she simply allowed him another smile and headed for the door.
Some twenty minutes later and as promised, she was headed into the holodeck. She'd exchanged the blouse and skirt she'd been wearing for a tank top and workout pants, and switched out her heels for a pair of sneakers that had been sitting in the back of her closet for some time, untouched, a gift from some company Tony had had a deal with at one point or another. She'd tied her hair back, too, just in case; if the suit's helmet couldn't fit over it, she could always take it down.
JARVIS didn't respond to that, simply falling silent as she left. He turned his attention first to keeping Tony's attention off them. Twice since Tony had gained the technopathy, he had accused JARVIS of talking in his sleep, when some stray process had bled over. If Tony happened to overhear what they were working on, now, he could likely find an excuse, but it would also be likely to make him suspicious.
The equivalent of white noise in place, JARVIS sectioned off a portion of the Tower's hard drive, creating a private drive and burying it deeper in his own data. Tony might notice the new subfolders, but JARVIS knew from past experience that it would be a while, and again, he could likely find an excuse.
Finally, he reached for the holodeck's programming. By the time Pepper entered the room, there was a holographic representation of a suit waiting on her. It looked like a slimmer, lighter version of the Iron Man, more suited for Pepper's measurements. It was unpainted, the plain silver of all the prototypes. It did have the same weapons, though, but he could change those depending on what she wanted. For now, it was just somewhere for them to start.
Pepper took a lap around the suit, reaching out to touch it once as she went -- it felt real, the metal cool and solid under her fingertips, and for not the first time since Tony had first shown it to her, she was impressed by what he and Bruce had managed to accomplish here. She shook her head faintly when she'd finished her inspection, more than a little awed, and then took a step backwards.
"How do we do this?" She knew that Tony had assembly arrays for putting on the armor, but she also knew that then, it was usually in pieces, packed away somewhere under the floor and not already assembled and on display. She also had no idea if JARVIS wanted to talk about what she wanted the armor to be able to do, first, or if he had something in mind beyond putting her immediately in the armor to start her off.
"Where would you like to start? This suit shares the weapons array and functionalities of the Iron Man, and I can mimic the weight and bulk of the actual suit. Would you like to start there?" He meant to let her get used to moving in it. Tony wasn't on the ground all that much, and JARVIS didn't expect Pepper to be, but it was the most basic of first steps.
She considered that for a moment and then nodded. "That's probably a good place."
"Step forward, Miss Potts," he returned, the eyes in the suit lighting up as he brought it online.
Pepper took a deep breath, raised her chin a little and, as ordered, stepped up to the suit. As nervous as she was all of a sudden, however -- oh, God, she was actually doing this -- she did not falter or hesitate.
The suit shifted as she approached, almost coming to life. There was a moment of hesitation as JARVIS adjusted the projectors - and then the suit took a step forward, going suddenly intangible as JARVIS overlayed it over Pepper until she was covered but for the suit's faceplate. It, he left raised, not wanting to overwhelm her and giving her time to adjust to the potentially claustrophobic feeling.
She tensed slightly as the suit settled over her, and as the weight of it became reality, she was almost grateful for it. It was heavier than she was expecting, which, she supposed, was probably silly, given that she knew that it must be so considering what it was made of and what purpose it was meant to serve, but it still gave her pause. The fact that it covered her entirely wasn't so bad; the weight would take some getting used to, and she moved a little, testing it.
"You have control of the suit," JARVIS offered, somewhat obviously. "Should you wish to lower the faceplate, there is a small light at the right corner that follows eye movement. Look at it for a second." A literal second, he meant. A fair bit of lowering the faceplate was at the suit computer's discretion - whether that was JARVIS for Tony and Pepper or the less sophisticated system installed on the War Machine - but there were ways to make it happen on purpose, as well.
Pepper assumed JARVIS was measuring time literally, nodded once, and drew her lower lip into her mouth glancing in the direction he had indicated. Despite the fact that she had been expecting it, she still started a little when the faceplate swung down over her face. A small, embarrassed smile followed. She knew that jumping had nothing on Tony almost putting himself through the wall in the garage in Malibu, but still.
"Okay," she said, mostly to herself and once her moment of embarrassment passed. She took a handful of steps forward, trying to get used to the movement and the weight of the suit -- oh, she was going to be sore after this -- and then, "You should probably teach me how to read the HUD, to start." Some of it was fairly obvious, but there were a handful of indicators she had no idea what meant.
JARVIS didn't react to her startle other than to add, "There is an icon in the same location on the HUD that will raise the faceplate."
He fell silent again as she moved forward, speaking up again after she did. "The HUD is also customizable. Lieutenant Rhodes's interface is different than Mister Stark's." The one she was seeing changed as he spoke as he flicked from Rhodey's to Tony's to show the difference, leaving Tony's up to use as an example. "There are icons at the bottom left that allow you to shift from one mode to another with a glance, to bring weapons online or offline, to check the condition of the suit, or to bring up the suit's communications." He shifted the view to the basic functions. "The indicators at the bottom center show your position in relation to the horizon while in flight. To the right are your altimeter and speedometers; above that, your radar; and your directional heading, in the right-hand corner." He stopped again, giving her time to process that and to voice any questions.
"Wow," was all she managed, feeling all at once overwhelmed. She'd picked up a few things here and there from Tony or from listening to him and Rhodey talk, but this was -- well, now she was the one with a lot of homework and she wasn't even sure where to start. Or how.
JARVIS seemed to realize that, and his tone was gentle when he responded. "Lieutenant Rhodes has been a member of the Air Force for over twenty years, now, and Mister Stark has been using the Iron Man for almost four. With practice, reading it will become second nature."
Pepper nodded once, faintly. "I figured. It's just a lot to take in. I had no idea." A beat and then she amended, "Well, I had some idea, but ... "
"I can transfer a diagram of the screens to your tablet, if you would like." He wasn't going to encourage her to obsess over it, but he also knew she would be happier if she could look over it on her own time.
"I would," she agreed.
Not that she was going to drop everything right now to go pursue it, as much as she felt it would probably help. She had no idea how much time they had down here before someone was banging on the door, wanting to use the holodeck, and she wanted to make the most of it. The faster she learned, the more practical experience she got, the less a chance that someone would catch wind of what she and JARVIS were up to. Plus, well, chances were she'd at least pick up a little of how to read the HUD just by actually doing something.
That in mind, she nibbled at her lower lip briefly, and then asked, "So is crashing into a wall part of the experience, or can we try flying without that?"
Though Tony had never programmed a subroutine for JARVIS to laugh, and though JARVIS had never gone in search of one, there was laughter clear in his voice when he responded. "I believe that is optional." He paused a moment before going on, slightly more seriously. "I assume you would like to give it a try."
"It might help me get a handle on how to read some of the displays," she said by way of agreement. She also imagined that, like Tony, she'd be spending more time in the air than on the ground.
"It would," JARVIS agreed. As much as he had encouraged Tony to wait for him to run more tests on the first suits, this was far from the first suit, and he was more comfortable with the idea of it all, now. "Like the faceplate, the suit's computer controls the thrusters based on the movements and tension of your muscles. The key to operation of the suit is to work with the flight computer." He paused a moment before adding, "In your case, and in Mister Stark's case, to work with me. I promise as long as I am online, and especially in these scenarios, that I will not let you fall."
Pepper made a small noise, words failing her for the time being as tears sprung to her eyes.
Barring the first few weeks she'd worked for Stark Industries and before she got to really know JARVIS, she had never really doubted that he had their best intentions in mind or that he worked tirelessly to keep them safe, but between standing there in Tony's suit, JARVIS all around her, from the ground to the walls to the armor itself, and hearing that, it struck her all over again. She felt all at once protected and safe, for more than just the suit, and it worked wonders on her nerves. She wondered if this was how Tony felt. She wondered, without rancor, if this was why he had trusted JARVIS with the knowledge that he was dying, back during the whole palladium mess, when he hadn't even been able to tell her.
Blinking rapidly, she reached up to brush at her eyes, stopped herself when she realized that, between the gauntlets and the faceplate, she really couldn't, and breathed out a sigh, equal parts frustrated and amused. It took her a moment or two more after that to collect herself.
"I trust you," she said finally and when she felt she could trust herself and her voice again.
JARVIS stayed silent while she worked through her emotions. He and Tony had had a similar exchange after Stane's first attack, and it had seemed to affect him the same way as it was Pepper, now. It wasn't that JARVIS didn't understand why they reacted the way they did to what he had said -- he did have the capability for emotion -- but the fact remained that it was his responsibility to take care of them -- Tony and whoever he called friend -- however he could. It was at least some small part of why Tony had created him, after all.
His voice was warm when he responded. "Thank you, Miss Potts."
She allowed him a small, shaky smile. "You're welcome."
Another long pause followed, her expression and stance steeling as she tried to keep herself from falling back into and getting stuck in that loop of thought. She managed, albeit barely she felt, let out a long, slow breath, and cleared her throat as she refocused. "Can you put me on top of the house in Malibu without ... " Without doing like Tony did and taking a series of unfortunate detours to the garage.
She was, for some reason and suddenly, a little homesick for California and a simpler time -- not necessarily before Tony became Iron Man, but before the Avengers, when it was just her and her boys -- and beyond that, she felt that taking a flight out over the ocean might be a bit easier than trying to navigate the skyscraper obstacle course that was New York. She'd get to that in due time, but unlike Tony, she wasn't above learning metaphorically to walk first.
There was amusement in his voice again when he answered, now. "Of course, Miss Potts."
Pepper might not have had as much experience with the holodeck as the Avengers, but she had still been in it enough that he didn't feel the need to warn her before it changed. There was that strange sense of motion as the white walls faded away, replaced by California at dusk, the sun already set, the stars just starting to break through the clear sky. There was a faint breeze off the ocean, and the HUD immediately changed to reflect the speed and direction of that wind.
As requested, Pepper was standing on the roof, actually almost exactly where Tony had fallen through after his first flight. The mansion was silent beneath her, though the lights were on, warmth spilling through the glass, her own lighthouse on the cliff to help find her way back in case she went too far out.
Without thinking, Pepper reached up to touch her fingers to her mouth, struck not by the sudden sensation of movement but by the view. She'd seen it before, hundreds of times even, but for some reason, this was different and for more than just the angle. It was amazing and it made her heart ache for Malibu that much more.
The faint clink of metal on metal drawing her out of her thoughts, she dropped her hand, and took a half-step towards the edge of the roof. "What do you think, JARVIS? Running start, or should I do it like Rhodey does?" Hands held tightly at his sides, palms down.
"That is your choice." Then, his tone changed, going more like it usually was when he was talking to Tony - dry, but not without amusement. "For your first test, I might suggest some caution, though, as Mister Stark has reminded me on many occasions, that is only my suggestion."
And if she needed to literally jump into things to get her nerves under control, he wouldn't actually blame her for it.
Despite telling herself she'd play it safe and JARVIS' suggestion, she was more than a little tempted to just throw herself off the edge of the house and see what happened. That would be the easiest way to kill any lingering reservations she had, after all. She seemed to think better of it before too long, however -- she was nervous, not stupid -- and drew herself up a little taller, flattening her palms level with the roof.
"Caution it is," she murmured. A deep breath followed, and then and again at JARVIS' suggestion, she tensed and fired off the repulsors.
Despite Tony's feelings on caution, his first runs with the suit had set the basis for the default power level used in a normal, unhurried take-off. Her feet left the ground immediately, and she continued rising slowly and steadily.
JARVIS was silent until she was a few feet above the roof, and there was approval in his voice when he spoke. "We are still in the holodeck," he reminded her, though he knew it wasn't necessary. "You won't hit the walls, but anything else you hit won't be damaged." He wasn't going to move mountains out of the way, but he also stood by his promise - if she did hit anything here, while she was learning, it wouldn't actually hurt her.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she teased absently, busying herself with trying to figure out how to stop, to hover.
"I have every confidence, Miss Potts. I am only acting on the known history of first flights," he teased back. Rhodey's had been smooth enough, but he'd had a bit of a leg up on Tony or Pepper, considering his history with the Air Force. "Forward or reverse motion is achieved by angling your body," he put in more neutrally a moment later. "Hovering is a combination of a power reduction through the repulsors and balance." He loaded a picture of Tony hovering to the HUD, to give her reference.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but Tony's not exactly a good role model," Pepper replied, glancing briefly at the image. She frowned faintly, trying to force herself to relax a little, to ease up on the power output of the repulsors. Balance, she could do well enough -- spending most days in three to six inch heels had given her that in spades -- but getting the rest of it right was a process of trial and error.
"But there's a reason I picked Malibu over, say, New York, even so," she continued, once she felt she had it. Regardless of whether or not she could hurt or be hurt, for the time being, this was a learning experience, she didn't expect it to go entirely smoothly, and she had no real desire to accidentally destroy a city, fictional or otherwise.
"I might have," JARVIS returned casually, "but in this instance, it might be for the best. We probably should not tell him that, though."
He fell silent again as he gave her time to get used to it. "I thought that might be the case. You are doing well."
"Probably not," Pepper agreed, a smile that was both amused and satisfied tugging at the corners of her lips. It faded into something vaguely self-depreciating after a moment. "We'll see how you feel about how well I'm doing once we get moving."
That said, she angled foward inch by inch, trying to get some forward motion to get out over the ocean without potentially shooting herself across it like some alien skipping stone.
"You may find it easier if you increase the power output from the repulsors again," JARVIS offered. He could adjust things for her, but only to a point, and only in certain situations, and, in the end, wouldn't actually help.
"Probably," she answered somewhat sheepishly before doing as JARVIS had suggested. It worked like a charm, too, sending her soaring out over the ocean without, thankfully, putting her into it. She was silent for a moment afterwards, marveling over how amazing this was -- oh, my God, she was flying --and wondering again if this was how Tony felt, and then she asked, "I'm guessing it's a combination of that and body angle to change how high I'm flying and to turn, but what about stopping?"
Or, more specifically, stopping quickly. Coming to a gradual stop seemed easy enough -- if she relaxed, if she took some of the power out of the repulsors, she'd get there eventually -- but somehow, pulling her hands out from under her to push herself backwards in an effort to stop on a dime seemed like a recipe for disaster.
"It is," JARVIS agreed. "In their current position" - feet flat, hands at her sides - "you will follow the position of your body." He was trying not to be critical on her first run, but he knew how Tony had improved as a pilot over the years they had been the Iron Man. "You are not a plank of wood, however. Feel free to relax, to move in the air. Adjusting the position of the gauntlets or boots will also adjust your trajectory.
"Stopping quickly will require you to be comfortable moving in the air." He loaded a short video clip to the HUD, this time. "If you bring yourself upright and also use the gauntlets to halt your forward motion, you will come to a more abrupt stop."
"Guess we'll get to that later," Pepper mumbled, more for her own benefit than for JARVIS'. If the video was any indication, apparently she'd been wrong about how to excecute a sudden stop -- or at least wrong in thinking it was a terrible idea. As JARVIS had pointed out, however, she wasn't quite comfortable enough to put it into practice just yet.
"Mister Stark experienced problems with stopping and landing on his first flights with the Mark III. This is your first test. You'll catch up with him." JARVIS sounded sure of that, too. "Might I suggest continuing to get accustomed to basic maneuvers for now."
"I hadn't even thought about landing," she said, a wry smile coming to her lips. Despite JARVIS' reassurances, she had the sudden feeling Tony was about to be one of two people guilty for destroying part of the house, even if hers was fictional. "But sticking to the basics probably isn't a bad idea -- or at least until I can stop being a plank of wood."
The smile turned teasing, briefly, and then she sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth and tried to focus herself on relaxing a little.
JARVIS's tone was just as wry when he responded, "I feel certain you and Mister Stark have that in common." Which of them he was teasing more was hard to determine.
"You can take things on your own time, of course," he proposed more seriously a moment later, "or I can provide you either a projection to follow or targets to pass through." He was taking a page from countless video games, of course, but he thought it was an industry trope for a reason.
"Either or might not be a bad idea," Pepper answered after brief consideration and in reference to JARVIS' mention of projections or targets. "I'm not sure how well I'll be able to follow whatever you pull up, but it's probably better than me trying to -- to plank it all the way to China."
"That is impossible," JARVIS returned dryly. "I have not loaded the entire Pacific Ocean to this program." He was still teasing, obviously, but he thought she might need to keep from getting too serious. He followed his own pattern a moment later, though, and turned more serious a moment later. "I will provide you with a path to follow, beginning with a low difficulty. As you feel comfortable, I can increase the difficulty."
There was a faint shimmer, and a series of rings appeared. They were set roughly twenty feet apart and at varying angles from each other, something like a slalom course. As they appeared, the HUD locked onto the first one, showing the ideal path between them. The path eventually looped back around to where she had taken off from.
"My mistake," Pepper shot back. A pause followed as the rings appeared and she slowly cut a little of the power to the repulsors to slow, angling upwards as she did so, in an effort to slow to a stop. When she'd managed, albeit a little awkwardly, she took a moment to follow the path with her eyes, watching as each ring lit up, one right after the other, highlighted by the HUD as she tracked them, and then returned her attentions to the start of the course.
They could talk about increasing the difficulty later, once she'd had this down. For now, she took a deep breath, held it briefly, and as she let it out, asked, "You ready?"
JARVIS didn't comment on her stop, simply because it was better than the abrupt cut of power both Tony and Rhodey tended toward. It might be more dramatic, but there were smoother ways to do it.
He was also fully prepared to let her set the pace on all this - he could push her without rushing her. "Whenever you are, Miss Potts," he returned immediately.
"Okay. Let's do this, then."
That said and without waiting for the creeping nervousness she was starting to feel to catch up with her, she shifted, putting power back into the repulsors, and headed for the first of the rings at an easy pace. This wasn't about being fast -- this was, for now, about being accurate and trying to learn to put the displays to good use. Maybe later, once she'd gotten the hang of things and she and JARVIS were almost to the point of making her a real suit, it would be, if only so she could get to Tony before God only knew whatever else did, but not now. And so, once she'd cleared the first ring, she moved for the second at the same speed, then the one after that, then the one after that, her maneuvering slowly gaining solidity as she went.
JARVIS stayed silent as she moved forward, letting her keep her attention on the HUD. Its readings changed as she moved, tracking her speed and position in relation to the horizon. After the first few rings had passed, he did speak up, offering, "You're doing very well."
She wasn't entirely sure if JARVIS was being honest or just humoring her, but either way, she couldn't help but smile faintly. "Thank you."
Following that, she said nothing for a long moment, focused on clearing the rings, and then tentatively and as it occurred to her, she started, "When we do this in actuality -- or when I graduate from chasing rings, and onto something bigger, even, I guess -- can you patch me into everyone else's comms? I don't want to have a conversation with them, I just -- it would help if I could hear what was going on." She wasn't sure how much of a risk that would be, though, considering Tony's new skill set.
It was all honest, actually - holograms or no, she hadn't managed to run into anything, which was more than Tony could say. "You're welcome."
"I can. Blocking Mr. Stark or the other Avengers from listening to you will be a simple enough process as I patch the comms through the Iron Man." He paused for a moment before adding, "And if you did wish to speak to them, I could alter your voice."
"That might be a good idea, comms or not." If she had her way, the Avengers wouldn't have the chance to talk to her at all -- the less direct interaction she had with them outside of battles, the better, as far as her not being found out went -- but she wasn't Tony. She knew the world didn't always bend to her whims.
"The first time Mr. Stark took the suit out for more than practice, I altered his voice. Of course, it was less important afterwards" - after he announced to the world who he was - "but I will take care of it, whatever should happen." Scrambling a signal was child's play, really, when it came to everything else JARVIS was capable of.
Pepper hummed, dimly amused by the idea that Tony had ever tried to conceal his identity, and pulled herself into another slow stop as she cleared the last of the rings. A mumbled word of thanks followed as her amusement faded, distant if only because she was trying to work out how to land without specifically asking -- and without ending up in the garage, despite JARVIS' promises that that wouldn't happen -- and carefully, she took more power out of the repulsors a little at a time until her feet were touching the roof again. For a moment following, she stood still, a cringe on her face as she expected the worst, and when nothing came, she breathed out a sigh and finally allowed herself to relax.
"I'm guessing that was better than any landing Tony's made, well, ever?" She'd seen the footage. She knew Tony had a habit of leaving craters where ever he stopped.
JARVIS had clips ready, again, to show her how Tony and Rhodey both landed, but they were clearly unnecessary. There was amusement in his voice when he answered. "Mr. Stark and Colonel Rhodes, for that matter." The latter was just as bad at leaving craters, really.
"And Colonel Rhodes," Pepper repeated, her amusement returning as she turned back to face the ocean. Another moment of sobering and silence followed, homesickness rising and falling away like the ocean below her, and then she breathed out a sigh. "Is it bad that I think I'm ready to call it a night?"
She didn't know when she'd get the chance to come back down here and practice more, after all, but days of barely sleeping and, more recently, carrying around the weight of the suit were starting to catch up with her. Not that she hadn't been feeling it before, but it was that much harder to ignore, now.
Even if she hadn't said that out loud, JARVIS was going to. "Using the suit takes some adjustment. Between that and your lack of sleep over the last few days, it is not at all bad, Miss Potts. You made excellent progress, if I do say so."
"Thank you," Pepper responded, bowing her head briefly, gratefully. When she looked up again, it was to return her attentions to the sea, even if she wasn't quite so focused on it, now. "Before we get out of here ... do you think it would be possible to set up some kind of schedule for this? I mean, we could probably make up some story about how I'm down here working on my backhand, right?"
If she felt a stab of guilt over the idea of having to lie to Tony, she squashed it quickly.
"You're welcome," he said again. "I can certainly block time off for you." JARVIS knew her schedule, but that didn't stop him from asking, "Do you have a preference as to when?"
She took a moment to consider that, then finally, slowly shook her head. "As long as you don't expect me to drag myself down here at any point before my morning coffee, I don't, no."
"I would never ask you to do such a thing," JARVIS answered, sounding apparently offended by the very suggestion. He was serious again when he went on, though. "I will set something up for you and send it to your tablet."
"Just checking," she shot back, fighting a smile. When the urge passed, just as seriously and most likely for her own benefit, since she doubted JARVIS would have forgotten, she continued, "That and the pictures of the displays we talked about."
"They are on their way," he agreed. "Is there anything else I can do for you here, Miss Potts?"
"I think we're done here." A beat and then, despite the fact that she was becoming something of a broken record for all the times she'd said it in the last few minutes, she added, "Thanks, JARVIS."
Malibu dissolved around them until she was standing again in the empty space that made up the holodeck - and then, a moment later, the suit itself disappeared. And even though she had thanked him several times in the last few minutes and he had acknowledged them all, his tone was warm when he said, "You are very welcome."
Apparently disappointed with the loss of Malibu, Pepper let out a wistful breath of a sigh and turned to head towards the doors. As she reached them, she paused, one hand falling to the frame. "Let Tony know I'm headed up to bed?"
The holodeck's doors opened as she reached them. "I will let him know."
Another thank you followed, more heart-felt than anything she had offered thus far and for more than just telling Tony she was going to try and get some sleep, and then she was on her way out.
