Unfinished Gems

Iron Maiden - 2

Tony had to admit, he loved Pepper's new 'duckling' as he called her. Which usually got an annoyed scowl from Jazz, but it was cute, so he ignored it.

Jazz had long since moved past 'intern' to 'Pepper 2.0' in the eyes of everyone else. She had a special touch when it came to getting him to do the boring stuff, so he had time to do the fun stuff.

And her little ideas! Tony could dance with glee at some of the unique, and very profitable ideas she kept coming up with in her spare time. Giving her that tablet and pen was a brilliant move, and he could literally watch her spend the day away by messing around with the products they had available and improving it.

Jazz kept far, far away from the weapons department and went straight for the 'personal defense' line of thinking. Rhodey only took one look at some of the things she kept messing around with before looking quite eager about delivering them to his bosses.

For a civilian, Jazz knew quite a bit about a soldier's mentality. More than a few of the ideas looked like they would do a lot towards keeping soldiers safe at a cost effective way that would make the skinflints in the military accounting department happy.

Things like an ultra-sonic emitter that would detonate IEDs with enough distance that the most soldiers would get from the explosion would be a minor bump on the head. It could be retrofitted to attach to the front of the standard convoys and once it was active it would set off a sound that was inaudible to human hearing. Sure, it would drive dogs and other animals nuts, but the safety of the soldiers inside those cars was more than worth it.

Even if it meant limiting the amount of K9 units in the convoys, that was a small price to pay.

Another idea she had was new armor plating for the vehicles, especially for the bottom. One that could handle an IED blast without compromising the engines or making it too heavy. That one she was still having trouble with, but the fact she was even considering that was enough to have Rhodey's respect.

Tony, once he figured out what she was making, had taken the concept and was fiddling around with the subsonic device for the vehicles as a way to get the government contract over with.

Rhodey noticed Jazz trying to bring up coffee for everyone, especially Tony. He pushed the elevator button for her.

"Thanks."

"You're the duckling Tony mentioned. The one who came up with that special mace," said Rhodey.

"Why does he keep calling me a duck? Why couldn't it be something dignified like a falcon or an owl?" scowled Jazz.

Rhodey grinned at that.

"So why did you go into making items for soldiers?" he asked, because that had been bugging him for a while now.

A civilian teenager shouldn't be able to understand that sort of mentality so easily.

"If anyone can understand the thought process of a soldier against an enemy that has a terrain advantage, it's me," she said quietly. She left the elevator and started handing out the coffee.

Rhodey blinked and stared at her a bit. He sensed a major story behind that, one that he suspected no one would like.

Jazz turned slightly to hand Pepper her coffee, and the light hit her in a way that had Rhodey blink.

For a split second there he thought he was looking at a teenage, female version of Tony with red highlights on the tips of her hair and green eyes.

Weird.

Rhodey had no idea that odd little comparison would haunt him for weeks and lead to a rather shocking revelation for everyone...except perhaps Jazz.

~