Unfinished Gems

Iron Maiden - 8

Tony was rather pleased with himself. Once they started having a viable 'portable' version of the Danger Room created, with a few tweaks from the original, the government was already scrambling to get their hands on it.

Having a facility where soldiers could be put through live combat without any risk to their own lives to acclimatize them to real world battlefield conditions was extremely valuable.

The fact Tony also planned to make smaller, less expensive versions of it for SWAT and other first responder teams only gave the company a major boost in the good PR department. Pepper was very pleased about that.

Unknown to Tony though, Jazz had one more facility she was making with the equipment. A place for PTSD survivors and those coming off the active combat zones to successfully 'acclimate' off of a more adrenaline-based mindset and back to a less violent atmosphere.

The room would slowly wean the soldiers being taken off active battlefields like Afghanistan back into a civilian mindset, hopefully removing the triggers associated with PTSD. If nothing else, it would help them cope with any traumas they had.

So it was with no little amount of relief that the order for the training equipment filled out what was left of the government contract hanging over their heads.

Tony finished that order with a flourish and made sure to have Rhodey pass along the fact that they wouldn't be taking any new contracts for a while...they still had a lot to reorganize, and he would be too busy to deal with new orders for more toys.

It wouldn't be until a week later that Tony and Jazz had a chance to field test their new suits...and enter into a live combat situation of their own.

Tony looked at his daughter.

"You're okay with me going there to blow up our own weapons?"

Jazz snorted.

"Tony, the government will just sit on their asses citing 'foreign policy' and 'diplomatic relations' and do nothing. And without their approval, the soldiers cant do a damn thing about it without risking being dishonorably discharged or court martialed. If they won't do something about this situation, I see no reason why we can't," she replied flatly. "You did add the adjustments I asked for to my suit, right?"

"I still don't get how a pair of energy fans and a staff are going to be more useful than the weapons I have on mine."

"Training," said Jazz flatly, pleased she had a new pair of toys to play with.

She may have given Tony ideas when she introduced him to the Gundam series she stumbled upon...she wanted beam rifles and energy weapons to play with, dammit!

And no, it wasn't enough that she could recreate most of the weapons with her sling ring. She wanted the real thing.

(She secretly suspected she might have influenced Tony with her love of the series, because he incorporated more of the weapon designs from the show than the simple one he had on him. Either that or he was trying to earn brownie points for some reason, because her armor made her look like a Valkyrie or close to it).

~

With Rhodey

Rhodey had to stare at the limited view they had of the two odd suits on radar. One of them was clearly unused to dealing with things going to hell in a hurry. It was clinging to the bottom of the plane to try and curtail any more fire in its direction.

The other one, however...

That damn thing flew around like it was made for the air doing quick turns and sudden stops like it was a damn bird, despite looking more like the old pictures of Valkyries. Then it took an odd stance and suddenly it clicked what they were dealing with.