Scared To Be Lonely

Chapter 7: Mandarin Research

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"I've compiled a Mandarin database for you, sir, drawn from SHIELD, FBI and CIA intercepts." JARVIS was saying as Nick pulled her hair up into a ponytail, still in the outfit from the day before, which was her school uniform, minus the blazer and her glasses - which had been in her backpack ever since she tried sleeping at the hospital. 

She instead had her button up shirt's sleeves rolled up while her shirt was half untucked from the skirt and Jack's letterman jacket wrapped around her waist, partly over the black skirt, while both her gray knee high socks were scrunched up right at the top of her floral combat boots. 

Her and Tony had been in the lab/basement ever since they got back home, and both hadn't changed or freshened up whatsoever. Nick more so not doing it because she was too tired and Tony because he was focused. 

"Initiating virtual crime scene reconstruction."

Tony lifted up his hands and Nick watched as the room was suddenly engulfed by the blue holographic projection of the Chinese Theatre that had been blown up, and where Happy had gotten injured. 

The girl was sitting crisscrossed on top Tony's desk as he was sat on the chair right next to her, while he then pulled up many different screens of anything that was gathered on the Mandarin. "Okay. What have we got here?" He stands up, hands folded behind his back as he looked over everything, while Nick looked around the ground of the crime scene. 

"The name is an ancient Chinese war mantle meaning 'advisor to the king'. South American insurgency tactics. Talks like a Baptist preacher." Tony listed out, turning away from the screens that were pulled up and he scratched the back of his head. "There's lots of pageantry going on here. Lots of theater." He then turns back towards the screens while lifting up a hand, which he then turned into a fist while saying. "Close."

The screens all disappeared, as JARVIS then speaks up. "The heat from the blast was in excess of 3,000 degrees Celsius." Nick finally hopped off the desk and moved over to where the crime scene projection updated and showed figures that had been people. "Any subjects within 12.5 yards were vaporized instantly."

"No bomb parts found in a three-mile radius of the Chinese Theatre?" Nick finally spoke up, looking at the projection with a frown and her eyebrows furrowed together. The girl who was just 5'2" stepped around certain things and made sure that she didn't stub her toe or knees on a chair or something, while she was also reading some of what JARVIS had shown them. 

"No, ma'am."

Tony then looks down, "Talk to me, Happy."

Nick moved over to him as the projection then visualized how Happy was found on the ground, then it analyzed exactly where he was looking, and what his left hand seemed to be reaching for. Which made Tony quickly move over and sit back on his stool, the projection coming to his knees as he looked at stuff, thinking out loud. "When is a bomb not a bomb?"

The 13-year-old moved over to where he was, watching as he lifted up the part of the projection that had been where Happy was looking, and began flipping through the pieces of debris it showed. But then he stopped, focusing on one thing and Nick furrowed her eyebrows. "Are those... dog tags?"

Tony didn't respond to her as he then stood up, lifting the projection up vertically with him, before he then pushed it forwards so that JARVIS could analyze it as Tony asked. "Any military victims?"

"Not according to public record, sir."

"Bring up the thermogenic signatures again." Tony said as he stepped onto the desk, Nick deciding to copy his actions, wanting to know what he was doing. "Factor in 3,000 degrees." Then two stepped on top the big tool box thing that was black, and made them about six feet off the ground while looking at the screens that then popped up around them. 

"The Oracle loud has completed analysis. Accessing satellites and plotting the last 12 months of thermogenic occurrences now."

"Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack." Tony looked around them, and Nick watches as JARVIS does, some screens disappearing as markers on the holographic map goes away. Then Tony began reading some of the left over markers, "Nope." He looked at a second one, before his eyes then landed on another - Rose Hill, Tennessee. Heat signature 3000. "That. Are you sure that's not one of his?"

Nick glanced from Tony before back at the marker, as JARVIS then pulls up the multiple screens of facts and photos of the incident. "It predates any known Mandarin attack. The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide."

The girl watched as a newspaper was labeled 'BLAST CLAIMS SIX LIVES' with a soldier as the photo, and she put together that the soldier must of been the claimed suicide. 

"Bring her around." Tony says and the screens all go away, including the rest of the markers, as that one moves to be right in front of where Tony was now sat down on the tool box, Nick kneeling down next to him. "The heat signature is remarkably similar. 3,000 degrees Celsius."

"That's two military guys." Nick states, since the suicide bomber was military, and according to the dog tags from the bomb at the Chinese Theatre, there had been a soldier there as well.

"Ever been to Tennessee, JARVIS?" Tony asks, and JARVIS responds with. "Creating a flight plan for Tennessee."

Then Tony wipes away all the projections while Nick looks to him with a sigh, knowing that she wasn't going with, and she honestly wasn't gonna complain about that. Today was officially the first day of winter break, and also the big football game later. "Please be careful."

He glances at her, but then the doorbell rings, making the two look towards their right as a screen pops up next to them, showing security footage of outside the mansion. "Are we still at ding-dong? We're supposed to be on total security lockdown." Tony hits the table, and Nick gives him a look while moving off the tool box thing and back onto the desk. "Yes, because someone was an idiot and gave a terrorist the address."

"I threatened a terrorist." Tony nods while throwing his arms out, looking at her. "And you're never going to let me live this down, are you?"

"Not likely." She hops off the desk, before gesturing to the screen, that showed the car driving up the driveway. "Who is that anyways?"

"There's only so much I can do, sir, when you give the world's press your home address." JARVIS said as Nick watched Tony with a raised eyebrow, since he had gone over to put his Mark 42 Iron Man suit on, which then caused her to roll her eyes and head up the stairs - which also meant that they both had missed the skateboarder that followed the car through the gate.