Cosmic Collision (Percy Jackson / Marvel)

Chapter 7

TONY STARK

The stupid machine was not working. I've checked it multiple times, but its simply not connecting to the thrusters. I was working on a modification to one of dad's later works by trying to reverse engineer it. By no means was it going to be easy, and I knew it. And in some ways that's what I loved most about it.

It felt like I was proving myself to my father. Not that he was here to admit defeat, but one could always hope he fuming wherever he must have been right now.

Mostly hell. But most probably heaven. Mom would never let him be separated from her for an after-lifetime, and it was almost impossible for anyone to say no to her. And she knew it.

I quickly blinked my eyes to get rid of the annoying cloudiness and focused on the machine instead.

Okay. Let's go through everything by process of elimination. 14 pathways. 3 different fluids. 5 connectors. 9 metals. The calculations were right. They had to be! Jarvis had been running the program for surprisingly quite a long time and had cross checked the results with Dad's journal.

My eyes scanned the neat jumble of colored wires, and then I groaned. I nearly hit my head with my hand.

Good thing I didn't, because I had been holding a soldering iron and that would not have ended well.

It was so simple, and that was probably why I had ignored it all the time. The wires had not been soldered. That was the last piece of this puzzle. So I carefully used the heated rod and joined the wires, one by one. Looking over the whole thing, to make sure nothing was amiss, I slid out from underneath it.

Running the program again, I gave a small sigh of relief when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I immediately spin around, causing the intruder to stumble back and fall, hence breaking an expensive vase that Pepper had picked.

It was a tall, brunette-one I couldn't recognize. I immediately grabbed my trusty Glock from under the counter and yelled 'Jarvis! What's going on? '

'It's down Tony.' the woman answered getting back up. Her lip was cut due to the glass and her glasses were lying broken on the floor.

'Down? What do you mean down? '

JARVIS was an exemplary artwork of mine. He was my pride, and I had spent countless months perfecting him to the best of my abilities. Also, not many people can hack Jarvis. He is extremely well secured. Till date, he has only been successfully hacked twice- once by Fury and the other time by Natasha.

'Down as in I've gotten into your servers.' the lady hugged her arms lightly before replying, 'This was the only way I could talk to you Tony. I need your help. '

'What the hell lady? You burst in here like some ninja-hacker, take down my best defense and have the guts to ask for my help? ' I was fuming right now. The gall of this lady.

'Who the hell are you? Don't even bother lying if you want my help. '

'Fifth Grade. The Computer Science Lab caught fire. That was done by three students. And those student formed Binary Matter. '

My eyes immediately widened when I remembered the incident.

We had been fooling around. In some corner of my mind, I always loved getting into trouble. Dad might have started speaking to me more often then. But despite all of my trips to the principal's office, and the countless calls home, ' important government business', was a good enough reason to get out of them. I liked to think of that as my dad's favorite card.

But getting back to that day, it was PE and neither one of us really wanted to go and be forced to mingle with all those stupid, mean kids in our class. They didn't appreciate our genius, rather seemed to hate us all the more for it.

When you look back at such memories as an adult, you tend to see things a lot differently. But this memory always makes me feel small again. Like I was back in school.

Vulnerable.

So instead of going to PE class, we three friends decided to skip it, and try writing large codes. What we didn't know is that one of the wires short circuited when we were using it. We were so busy laughing and typing on the arcane screen, that we failed to notice the smoke signals and the budding flames. As though angered by our neglect, the flames sprang to life, spreading faster than anything I had seen then.

We ran out of the lab, but by the time we called the teachers and the fire was put off, the damage was also done. We later learned that the school cat Mr. Paddlepaws had suffered severe burns and one of her legs had to be amputated.

As a small kid, these memories stick with you. They unknowingly shape you and change you. They ultimately help make you.

I never saw both of my friends ever again after my parents put me to a more expensive boarding school. My two real friends. Fredrick and Elizabeth.

'Liz?' My voice came out softer than I had intended to. I was tensed and held my breath.

She didn't say anything, and just started to nod. When she looked up again, a solitary tear drop was streaming down her face.

I quickly moved forward and gave her a warm hug. I really did not know this person , I argued with myself. Yes, but you still care for the one you knew before , the other side of me fired back.

'Tony', I heard the voice calling out my name. I know its been a long while, but I really need your help. '

'Of course. But we need to talk first. At least for a while. I have not seen you in close to three bloody decades! '

'Tony, we can have time for that later if I survive, but something bad is going on. I am running for my life Tony! You have to help me! ' she burst into erratic sobs, the tears streaming down her red face. She held herself tighter and looked at me with waterlogged eyes.

I nodded. We have been out of touch for quite a while, but we were 'Binary Matter'- the three of us. And induction into a top-secret club with your two best friends, makes them extremely important in your life. Extremely, might I add again.

The sighed, her sobs slowly calming down. Her eyes look haunted and it pains me to see that expression there. She had always been like a sister to me.

She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. She took a deep breath, let it out and gave me a tight hug. She just caught my eyes and said, 'Thank you so much Tony.'

I only smiled in return.

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