Chapter 23) – House Work

Still in the office, Tony was halfway through disassembling the model after only a minute or so.

During that time, the secretary, Bambina, had returned to the office to inquire about what we were doing now that Pepper had left the premises.

Since Tony was the majority shareholder, and the building was in his name, he was allowed leeway in terms of building access, but he didn't have free reign since he no longer ran Stark Industries. However, he also couldn't be forcefully removed since he still owned the majority of the company.

This resulted in Bambina being cautious with her question, while also subtly hinting that he should leave, "Mr. Stark, can I help you with anything else now that Ms. Potts has vacated the premises?"

Tony being, well, Tony, completely ignored the secretary as he was focused on disassembling the model without damaging it.

Therefore, Mara took it upon herself to reply to the woman, "He's fine, Bambina. We're just taking apart this model so that Tony can take it back to the mansion with him. Pepper asked him to clear out some of his personal effects before he left, so taking the biggest thing while he has some help seemed to be the best call."

Not recognising Mara, but aware that she had arrived with Tony and stayed with him for the entire meeting. Bambina must have, correctly, assumed that my host was someone of great importance and responded respectfully as such, "Understood miss. I will return to my desk, opposite the elevator. If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask."

Giving a nod and a quick, "Will do, cheers." Mara saw the secretary out of the office just as Tony slid the last segment apart.

Standing up from his crouched position, Tony turned to my host, "I'm not sure how exactly we're gonna get this back to the garage. I would have put it on the passenger seat but since you're here I can't do that. If I had known I'd have to take this back with me I would've brought a bigger car. Would you be able to give me a hand Mara? While I drive us back, can you use your tentacle things to hold onto the model parts without breaking them? Or do you want to head back on your own and I'll meet you there?"

Having had some time previously to think about a solution, Mara replied, "I'll secure them on my lap with some tendrils. As much as I would like to free up the passenger seat for you, and run back to the mansion myself, I can't exactly let you out of my sight."

Pleased that she had agreed to his request, even if she did it while insinuating his untrustworthiness, Tony said, "Well if you really think about it, you're the one who told me to take it and since you're taking up the spare seat, the least you could do is hold onto it."

Rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time at the Iron Man, Mara didn't retort and instead expressed her intentions to pick up the model segments - which I naturally obliged to.

Holding the box of strawberries in one hand, my host raised her other arm in the direction of the model parts, as I created tendrils from her fingers to lift the model so that it was one big, secure, stack.

With all the preparations complete, Mara asked Tony, "You need anything else? Or can we go, and you can do some work for once?"

Since he hadn't planned to take anything in the first place, Tony had nothing else that he needed. Thus, he replied as such, "I'm good. Let's get going."

Following behind Tony, we left the Stark Industries building and headed to the car.

Doing exactly what my host had agreed, we rested the segments on her lap and kept them secure with the tendrils wrapped around them.

Tony then drove us back to the garage so that he could figure out what secret the key the model contained would unlock. The secret which his father had, rather obviously, implied could be discovered using the model, once someone took the time to think about it.

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Arriving back at the mansion, Tony drove the car straight into the garage using the same ramp as when he left it.

Almost immediately after the car had come to a stop, Tony exited the vehicle and directed Mara on where we should put the model parts, "Push the desk back while I grab a table to put the model on. Don't worry, the desk is on wheels so nothing should fall over, and it should move fairly easily. Let me just take the brakes off first."

Doing exactly as he said, Tony walked over to his semi-circular desk and unclipped the brakes on the wheels that prevented it from moving.

Following the Iron Man's instruction, I created a tendril from the shoulder of the arm carrying the strawberries to push the table. I pushed it as far back as it could go, so that it was pressed right up to the back garage door - in between the generations of the Iron Man suits and the garage kitchen area.

Dragging over a folded-up table, from who knows where, Tony took half a minute to unfold it and secure the legs. Once they were locked in place he flipped it over so that the table was oriented correctly and awaited the model.

Turning to my host, Tony requested, "Can you give me a piece at a time, Mara? They should be in order of how I disassembled them, from top to bottom."

Complying with the request, I placed the top 2 pieces on the table and waited for Tony to slot them together before handing him the others.

Taking an equal amount of time reassembling it, as he did disassembling it, Tony eventually slotted all the pieces together as I absorbed all the tendrils back into my form.

Mara, with her hand free again, resumed munching on the strawberries in her other hand.

While her right hand had been occupied with the model pieces, she had expressed her desire to eat some of the strawberries on the return trip. As such, I had created a small tendril to feed her the fruits as we travelled back to the mansion.

She had enjoyed the fruits so much during the ride, that by the time her hand was freed from model holding duties, she only had a quarter of the box remaining.

As the Expo model was now fully assembled, Tony looked over it as he spoke out loud to his A.I. companion, "J.A.R.V.I.S., could you kindly Vac-U-Form a digital wire frame? I need a manipulatable projection."

Once it had finished, only taking a couple of seconds to get an accurate scan of the Expo model, the A.I. replied, {1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, sir.}

Seemingly interacting with the holographic wire frame that J.A.R.V.I.S. had created of the model, Tony picked it up and turned around with it, away from the physical model. While doing so he asked, "How many buildings are there?"

Giving a witty response, showcase that J.A.R.V.I.S. was definitely created by Tony, the A.I. replied, {Am I to include the Belgian waffle stands?}

Ignoring the witty way the A.I. asked the question, Tony responded, "That was rhetorical. Just show me."

Spinning the hologram and pulling over a chair to sit on, Tony re-oriented the wire frame so that instead of lying horizontal, the model was displayed vertically with the Expo's globe centrepiece being right in front of his face.

Looking directly at the globe, Tony asked his A.I., "What does that look like to you, J.A.R.V.I.S.? Kind of like an atom, correct? In which case the nucleus would be the unisphere."

Saying such, the Iron Man lifted his right finger and pointed directly at the Expo's central globe.

Continuing with his brainstorming, while Mara quietly snacked on her strawberries leaning back against the model table, Tony directed J.A.R.V.I.S., "Highlight the unisphere."

He then made some odd hand gestures as if pulling the unisphere out of the wire frame which actually caused said globe to enlarge and separate from the hologram slightly.

Thinking out loud, Tony pressed on, "Lose the footpaths. Don't need 'em." Punctuating his sentence, he swiped the back of his hand upwards to dismiss said footpaths from the holographic display.

J.A.R.V.I.S., being unable to read his boss's mind, asked the man for additional information so that it could better assist him, {What is it you're trying to achieve, sir?}

Clarifying himself for his companion, Tony explained, "I'm discovering- Correction. I'm, hopefully, rediscovering a new element. Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees. Parking lots, exits, entrances."

Flicking a few more outliers off the hologram, he told J.A.R.V.I.S., "Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework."

With J.A.R.V.I.S. doing as Tony had instructed him, Mara was thoroughly impressed by the sight she was seeing, [The CGI for the movies was good, but seeing all the holographic stuff in person is mind-blowing. It looks like so much fun to play around with.]

Pulling both of us back from Mara's internal musings was Tony clicking his fingers and throwing his arms into the air as the holographic sphere that was in front of him expanded to encase him.

The hologram stopped just before reaching the physical model on the desk - where my host was stood - and was, height wise, just over half the distance to the ceiling.

All 3 of us were looking at the holographic scene as I had also created a head to witness the view Mara was mesmerised by.

Whether it was the holographic nature of the display or the atomic structure that gave the sight its wonderment, I was unsure. What I was sure of though, was that the symmetrical spheres all equispaced and linked together perfectly to form an encompassing dome, was visually stunning.

As the 3 of us stared at the holographic molecules in silence, Tony slowly spun around 360-degrees on his swivel chair before he spoke aloud either to himself or to Mara and J.A.R.V.I.S., "Dead for almost 20 years. Still schooling me."

Chuckling with child-like innocence, Tony clapped his hands together and the hologram shrunk down to fit in-between the small gap of his hands.

Opening them up he held the holographic sphere between his thumb and fingers as J.A.R.V.I.S. gave Tony the confirmation of what he had already guessed, {The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for Palladium. Unfortunately, it is impossible to synthesize.}

As I returned my head back into my form, Tony activated his selective hearing again as he ignored the latter half of J.A.R.V.I.S.'s explanation and only focused on the first part.

Standing up, in an understandably very good mood, he said, "Uh-huh. Get ready for a major remodel, fellas-" Before remembering that Mara was present and turning to her as her continued, "-And lady! We're back in hardware mode. Mara, you gotta help me out with this. If I can create this element and replace the Palladium core, I can cure the poisoning. If I get cured, you don't have to be on babysitting duties and can actually go do action packed S.H.I.E.L.D.… stuff or whatever it is those guys do."

Already planning to help, Mara acted like she was thinking about it to try and mess with Tony a little.

Clearly it worked, as he quickly added, "I'll even say pretty please?"

Giggling slightly at how it sounded coming from Tony, my host promptly agreed, "Sure, just tell me what you need me to do. Let me update Coulson first, though. S.H.I.E.L.D. will want to know you're not gonna keel over in the next couple days if this works."

Glad that Mara agreed, Tony replied, "Sure, great. I'll get started, so just come and see me upstairs when you've made your call."

Opening up the tan canteen bag for my host, she grabbed the communicator to contact her current boss.

As previously, the call instantly connected, "Coulson, Mara again. Tony might have discovered a solution to his poisoning. His father, Howard Stark, seemed to have hidden the atomic structure of a new element in the layout of the Expo from 1974. He himself was unable to create it due to, as Howard himself put it, the technological limitations of his time. Tony seems confident, but J.A.R.V.I.S., his A.I. assistant, seems to think the element is impossible to synthesize. That's why I said he might have found a solution, rather than confirming it as a definite fix."

Absorbing all of the information Mara was providing him, Coulson promptly replied, "Understood. If there's anything you can do to improve the chances of success, do it. I'll come by the mansion later to check how things are going. Keep up the good work."

Since she had already agreed to do so, Mara responded, "Copy, will do. See you later."

Hanging up the call, my host returned the communicator to the bag I made and ate the remaining 3 strawberries.

Dropping the box - which also contained the uneaten stems - into the kitchen bin on her way past, Mara made her way to the garage stairs in order to rendezvous with Tony on the upper floors.

After ascending the stairs, we didn't need to go very far to find the Iron Man. He was in the process of clearing away, what was the night before, the dancefloor. Said dancefloor was covered in the glass from the multiple bottles Tony had shot with his repulsors, in his drunken stupor.

Mara called out to the man, that had his back to her while cleaning, "Done with the update Tony. What do you need me to do?"

Turning to face my host, he instructed her, "Perfect. I'm mainly going to have you doing demolition work to be honest. There should be an electrical box underneath the flooring here which is why I was cleaning it away. Could you break apart the floor, so that I can access it?"

Shifting Mara's clothes into our agent form, my host asked, "How far down is it under the concrete? Do I have to be delicate, or should I give it beans?"

Not needing to think about the question, Tony answered, "Delicate. It's not deep at all, so if you 'gave it the beans' you'd most likely damage it."

With the agent form completed, minus the facemask as it was unnecessary, Mara nodded in response to the Iron Man.

My host got down on 1 knee and placed her palm, flat, on the lighter shade of concrete flooring that Tony had directed her towards. She then visualised what she wanted to achieve, and with the connection we had formed over our time together, I understood her intentions completely.

Creating a spike from the palm touching the floor, I slowly penetrated into the concrete.

Not wanting to risk damaging the electrical box, I took my time. However, even then, I had broken out of the concrete layer within a handful of seconds. It appeared that Tony was correct. The flooring between the surface and the electrical box was indeed not very thick.

Whoever had built the flooring was intelligent enough to leave a slight bit of space between the electrical box and the concrete. Said space allowed me the ability to continue exactly as Mara had initially envisioned.

Splitting the spike into 8 tendrils, I directed them to follow along the electrical box in + and x directions so that I could create a stable outline of the electrical box.

Once a tendril had found its edge, I made it extend an inch over the edge before controlling it to ascend back through the concrete to expose itself.

Since Tony was partially standing on the outline, Mara informed the Iron Man, "You might want to stand back Tony, otherwise you might lose a toe or 2."

Not needing to be told twice, the man took a couple of steps back, so he was well clear of the area.

On the top of the concrete, I linked all 8 of the tendrils together to create a square perimeter around the electrical box. I also linked them together on the underside of the concrete, so that the slab we removed wouldn't drop onto the cover of the electrical box.

Sending my host the mental signal that I was done with the preparation work, Mara slowly pushed off the ground from her kneeling position. As such, my form began to pull on the concrete square and, with very minimal effort on our part, the concrete ripped from the rest of the floor.

Holding the slab in my form, Mara asked the Iron Man, "Where do you want me to put this?"

Seemingly shocked at how easily we had yanked the slab of solid concrete from the floor, Tony just stared at Mara for a second before he looked around himself and answered, "Erm, as long as you don't put it in the way of the lounge over there, you should be fine to put it down wherever."

Extending the tendrils holding the slab out, I gently lowered the slab onto the floor before releasing all of the tendrils and retracting them back into the agent form.

Tony, not standing on ceremony, immediately went down on 1 knee to pull off the metal plate protecting the wires within the electrical box.

The Iron Man looked over the wires for a couple of seconds before he stood up and walked over to the lounge – the same one he had told us not to block with the concrete slab a few seconds earlier.

Scanning the concrete floor of the lounge for only a few seconds, Tony grabbed a can of yellow spray paint from one of the wooden stools that had been moved to create space for the partygoers the night before. The stool looked like a large curling stone but was brown due to the wood it was made from, and it didn't have a handle, so one could sit on the flat top surface.

Crouched down, Tony sprayed a crooked looking square onto the floor, before then proceeding to join the corners of said square diagonally. The end result was an X contained within the uneven looking square.

The Iron Man straightened his back as he stood up and spoke to my host, "I need you to do the same again within the square. There's no electrical box this time, and the concrete is solid as it goes straight down into the garage. I need to attach some cables to the electrical box in order to re-route the power into the garage for the element synthesis. While you dig the hole, I'll mark up what I need to you to destroy in the garage so after you're done here head down there."

Clicking her heels together and straightening her body, Mara gave Tony an overenthusiastic, mocking, salute, "Yes Sir!"

Rolling his eyes, Tony didn't reply to Mara, but rather headed towards the stairs to do exactly as he had said he would.

Since my host didn't need to be conservative for the lounge hole, she didn't request my support. Instead, she straightened her fingers and held them together as she kneeled down on 1 knee.

As we were in our agent form, her fingers had sharp nails. Aiming her straightened fingers, sharp nails first, towards the centre of the X, Mara raised her elbow before she shot her hand towards the concrete - like a bullet from a gun.

To use a phrase Mara had said previously, she cut through the concrete like a hot wire through polystyrene. The sharpened nails gave her thrust increased penetrative capabilities as her hand essentially sliced through the floor and her entire forearm up to her elbow was buried in the concrete.

Needless to say, even though the lounge flooring was thicker than the layer covering the electrical box, Mara's hand successfully made it through the entire floor and was visible from the garage.

As could be expected from decimating the solid material, my host's action wasn't quiet. In fact, the sound of her forcing her hand through the floor made Tony exclaim, "Fucking hell Mara. I said to make a small hole, not demolish what's left of my house."

Pulling her hand from the hole, Mara looked down the opening at the billionaire below, "Calm your tits and think for a second you supposed genius. It's like putting a pen through paper - the quicker I punch through the floor, the less of an effect it has on the integrity of the surroundings... I think? The only downside is that it's a helluva lot louder."

Taking a second to think about it, Tony realised that the sound had made him think the worst when, in fact, Mara's logic was fairly sound.

He wouldn't be Tony though if his ego would allow him to admit that he was wrong, "Just don't go bringing the ceiling down on me. I'm not sure if being crushed to death is worse than poisoning and, frankly, I don't want to find out."

It was then my host's turn to roll her eyes at the shamelessness of the Iron Man as she resumed clearing out the marked hole. The slight difference was that since an initial hole was already made, she no longer needed the penetration power of her nails and thus punched out the rest of the square with her fist.

When the hole to the garage was finished, it was unfortunately not wide enough for Mara to fit through. Therefore, she reluctantly headed down towards the garage via the stairs.

Walking into the garage, turned future experimental workshop, Tony could be seen spray painting the wall that separated the garage space and the exit ramp for the cars that led up to the surface.

Waiting until Tony had finished painting the marking to signify where my host would have to create an opening, Mara got the Iron Man's attention, "Finished the lounge hole Tony. You finished marking everything?"

Throwing the spray paint can to a robot - that seemed to consist solely of an arm - which failed to catch it, and thus caused the can to fall to the floor. Tony walked towards Mara as he said, "Yeah all sorted down here. Should just be the same thing again with the painted sections. I'll connect the cables I need for the synthesis to the electrical box and throw them down the hole while you do your punching."

Nodding once, Mara replied, "Sure thing."

Tony went upstairs to connect the cables as he had mentioned, while my host repeated the same penetration, and punching, she did for the ceiling hole.

When all the holes were made and Tony had connected all the cables he needed to, they both met up in the garage to discuss what was next.

More accurately, it was Tony explaining exactly what he needed to do, and what my host could do to help since the technicalities of the process were too complex for the both of us.

"There are some long metallic coils I need. They'll be in a few of the many boxes I have around the place. J.A.R.V.I.S. and I's seemingly impossible synthesis method requires us to essentially build a miniature particle accelerator, but with a slight alteration to include a prism - which is essential to create the new element. We'll hang chains from the ceiling to hold up the coils where necessary and stack things underneath them to ensure the whole thing is perfectly level. Relying solely on you to hold them up is unrealistic, but I will be relying on you to lift and hold them in the first place so that I can secure them in place."

As my host nodded in understanding, Tony began to give precise directions on where he was going to secure each chain and where the coils should be laid out as the prismatic accelerator steadily began to take shape.