Iron Man [Book 2]

A New Suit

A couple days after noticing my strange behavior, Stark decided to redo his suit. With that in mind, he went to the Airbase Rhodes was teaching new recruits, wanting him to be part of it. While he was gone, I was sitting on the roof, staring out at the ocean.

As I sat there, I was remembering everything that happened to me in the past. I was fine, until yesterday, when I accidentally triggered some memories.

"Are you all right, Miss Barns?"

I slightly jumped when Jarvis spoke.

I nodded, saying I was fine.

"You seem upset."

"Just reliving some old memories."

It was silent after that. Talking to an A.I. was hard, because you never know if it's still there. I continued to sit there, and didn't hear the sound of an engine pulling up.

"Enjoying the view?"

I glanced over my shoulder to find Stark staring at me.

"It's a beautiful view," I nodded.

I continued to stare, before spinning around to face him.

"Is Rhodes going to help you?"

He shook his head.

"He thinks I need time to get my head on straight."

"Well," I began. "What you said at the conference was really surprising."

He nodded.

I stared at him blankly. He noticed.

"What?"

"You're changing."

"Maybe for the better."

Glancing at the ground, Stark looked as through he wanted to ask a question.

"You want to help?"

I tilted my head, slightly.

"So I don't get a big head while doing this."

"And so you won't get severely injured."

He nodded.

I shrugged.

"Can't think of a reason not to."

He nodded, before moving his head in a 'come on' gesture. Getting up, I followed him inside, and down to his lab, which was also a garage, with several cars.

"So you're lab is in the garage," I said, more as a statement than a question.

"Yep," was his reply.

I nodded.

"Well, all scientists have to start somewhere."

He ran his hand over a piece of glass, and it lit up to show a keyboard with strange symbols.

"You up, Jarvis?" Stark asked his A.I.

"For you, sir, always."

I stood behind Stark as he looked at the computer screens on his desk. The left monitor showed the suit we made in that cave, while the right monitor showed several lines of code.

"Open a new project file. Index as Mark Two."

He grabbed what looked like a pen, pointed it at the left monitor, and clicked a button. He then dragged the picture of the suit on the screen, to a flat screen laid out on a table near by.

"Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?"

When he pointed the pen at the screen, the image of the suit came up as a hologram.