#javris

kakawthecrow (reply)

blonde-with-the-bronze (reply)

javris (reply)

once-a-saint-now-a-sinner (reply)

((This is not an rp - it's just a thing I wanted to write, as background for javris' and my prodigyverse thread))

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"So if that's okay, I'll be able to start on it next week," Tony said, collecting his blueprints back from Miss Potts, "and the Mark VII should be mission-ready again by Friday if I can solve that issue with the targeting system."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," she said.  "I'll try to go easier on the paint job next time.  Was there anything else?"

He hesitated - this was the part he wasn't looking forward to, but he'd been putting it off far too long.  He had told JANIS to say something if he tried to let it slide again, and he knew she would - computers didn't forget things, and didn't take your feelings into account when they called you out.  "Not quite.  I need to talk to you about redundancy."

Her eyebrows rose.  "Redundancy, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes," he said.  "Everything about the Project has two or three levels of redundancy built into it, right?  Because if you're at Mach 2 above the Pacific and System A fails, Systems B and C have to be there to kick in."  He saw her nod.  "Even Colonel Rhodes is part of that - if anything happens to you, there's still War Machine.  The thing is, I've been doing some thinking, and I've realized there's one part of the process that isn't redundant."

"What's that, Mr. Stark?"

Tony took a deep breath.  "Me."

She frowned, not quite understanding what he meant.  "You want a raise?" she offered.

"No, I don't want a raise," said Tony, scratching at the back of his neck.  Since they'd begun this, he honestly had more money than he knew what to do with.  "I want an assistant."

Miss Potts dismissed that with a wave of her hand.  "You know very well we can't afford that, Mr. Stark.  You have JANIS and your robots."

"Yes, Miss Potts, but they can't do this on their own," Tony said.  "What if I'm on my way home tonight and I get run down by a bike messenger?  The suits need to be re-calibrated, repaired, and sometimes rebuilt every single time you take them out.  You know that.  JANIS and the bots are great, but they're not people.  You told me to make sure there's no weak links in our system.  Well, I found one.  It's me.  I can't be the only one who knows how to do this anymore.  That's just asking for disaster."

She bit her lip, thinking about it.  "You realize the sort of trust we'd need to have in this person," she said.  "I can't think of anybody who qualifies.  Happy is trustworthy, but he's..."

"He's not a tech guy," Tony agreed.  "And Rhodey's awesome, but his first loyalty..."

"Is to the Air Force," said Miss Potts.  She glanced around as she tried to think of somebody else.  There was nobody.  Happy and Rhodey were one hundred percent of other human beings outside SHIELD who knew Rescue's identity.  "Not Miss Lewis," she noted.

"Definitely not Miss Lewis," Tony agreed.  The idea was almost funny.

"So who does that leave?" Miss Potts asked.

"I don't know," he sighed.  "But I wanted to bring it up.  You understand."

"Yes, I understand," she said.  "All right, when you get the time, take a look around some of the R&D facilities and make me a list of candidates.  I'll have Miss Lewis pull their files and take a look.  We'll have to figure out how to vet them."

"Right," he said.  "I'll get on that tomorrow."  Ability was one thing, but she was right - trust was going to be quite another.

"Tony," she called out as he started to leave.

"Yes, Miss Potts?"

She smiled.  "Look both ways before crossing the street."

She looks about the room, but cannot spy anyone until a familiar face catches her eye and she takes off after it.

[ The doughnuts would? ]

"I...  Seriously, guys.  The CDC has an annual budget of 6.6 billion dollars and yet no one has found a way to stop this oddly uncomfortable disease?"

Percy sighed.