Cold Hard Iron

Chapter 21

Stark put down the welder that he had been working with and pulled off his goggles with a look of triumph on his face. "That should do it," he said happily, picking up back piece of his suit that he had just adjusted the boosters on.

"Is there any way that you could test it before putting it into effect?" Loki asked as Stark refitted the piece to his suit.

"We could go out and do a test run. There's just the fact that I would have to go completely limp and fall from a really high height and allow it to land me. I will have to be extremely quick if it doesn't work."

"Even if you do crash, which is quite unlikely given my calculations, I can heal you," Loki said, standing up from the chair that he had been sitting in to observe Stark as he worked on the suit. Loki had not felt the need to help out on the welding and mechanics part. That just wasn't his thing.

"Sir, I would like to inform you of the party tonight," JARVIS chimed in.

"Party?" Stark asked. "This is a new one on me."

"It is a large clean energy campaign and they are hosting a gala tonight, downtown. You are expected to represent Stark Enterprises, as Pepper is not available, sir."

Stark grumbled to himself. "Why is this the first I am hearing about this?"

"It is not, I told you a month ago, sir. You elected to ignore me, and when I told you last week you nodded, but you must have forgotten."

Stark grumbled some more, and then he turned to Loki. "Well, I know the last time we were out with the reporters it ended quite badly, but this time they will have plenty of other big-shots to bother. Would you like to be my date?"

Loki really wasn't one for lavish parties and large crowds, as he had had many of them when he was a child, being son to the throne and all, but he had to admit that the idea of accompanying Stark to this event sounded quite nice. And he expected that Stark had learned his lesson from the last time that Loki had been in public with him. If he hadn't learned his lesson... well, Loki would see to it that he did.

"I accept your invitation and shall accompany you to this event," Loki said, nodding slightly.

"JARVIS, what time is this thing?" Stark asked.

"It starts at eight o'clock tonight, sir," JARVIS responded.

Stark checked his watch. "Well, that totally gives us time to test the new software!" Stark said happily. "Come on, Reindeer Games, let's see how precise your calculations were!"

XxX

Loki was currently standing on the roof of Stark's mansion squinting up into the sunlight, trying to keep an eye on Stark in his suit from where he was standing. Come to think of it, this was the stupidest idea ever. At least Loki had communications with Stark, having had a little communicator shoved into his hands by the grinning billionaire.

"Tony, let's get this over with. Stop fooling around up there and do what you need to," Loki said irritably over the comm.

"Alright, alright," Stark responded. "Now usually to trigger the auto-pilot the suit would have to read my vitals and see that I am unconscious, but I am going to trigger it manually today since I am perfectly conscious."

"Obviously."

"Yeah, yeah, so, here goes nothing," he said, and with that Loki saw the shining gold and red suit start falling from the sky. It had fallen only a few meters when the blasters took over, slowing his decent to a safe pace. If one didn't know that Stark was supposed to be unconscious one would think that he had full control of the suit. The system landed him gently on his back a few feet away from where Loki was standing.