UPGRADE

By Tony Thornley

Tony Stark closed his eyes and listened. The Iron Man armor was more than a weapon. It was the world’s most complex and powerful supercomputer, in more ways than one. In addition to relaying what was going on outside the suit, the helmet was equipped with radio equipment and several sensitive microphones. He had become accustomed to filtering through various audio streams to find the information he needed most. Right now, that was the state of the hostages, who were thankfully all fine, and the security personnel, who were alive but unconscious.

“Mister Stark,” Bastion said, “it’s time to get back to business.” Tony looked at the mutant hunter in front of him, half thankful his helmet hid his disgust, half disappointed. Bastion had taken hostages in the offices of Stark Enterprises- Chicago- simply to attract his attention. Tony was furious, but at the moment he was severely outgunned. He had attempted to take on the group of Prime Sentinels but had failed.

“What business would that be?” he said. “I don’t usually make time for terrorists.”

“Witty,” he said. “I had suspected such from you.”

“The more time you waste monologuing, the longer it will be before I say no. So, let’s get on with it.”

“Mister Stark,” Bastion smiled, “I’m afraid you can’t say no. Why do you think I took hostages?” Tony gritted his teeth. He was right.

“What do you want?”

“Please open your visor,” he said. “I like to look my business associates in the eye.” Tony bit his lip to bite back a vicious reply, and mentally gave the command to open the helmet’s visor, but not before he gave another command.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m looking you in the eye. What the hell do you want?”

Jim Rhodes wondered if it was a good or bad thing that Tony has designed a crisis room for these sorts of situations. It had been an hour since Bastion’s attack, and they hadn’t been able to get any new information. Rhodey drummed his fingers on the crisis room’s conference table, staring at the breaking news feed of the ambush on Tony.

“Look,” Happy said as he strode into the room, “I know that the files on Operation Zero Tolerance are top secret, but I need whatever information you CAN give me on Bastion and why he might take thirty-four Stark employees hostage. Yes, that includes our CEO! Thank you!”

“No luck?” Rhodey asked.

“Typical government office,” Happy growled. “No luck.”

“That’s just fantastic,” Pepper said as she joined them. She set a cardboard tray filled with coffees on the table. “So, where does that leave us?”

“Well, it looks like Bastion is still jamming Tony’s communication signals, so we’re blind and deaf right now,” Rhodey said. “The only information we have is-“ Suddenly the television screen exploded into static.

“Well, that’s just great,” Happy muttered. “Cable’s out.” The static suddenly congealed into an image. The trio looked at each other. It was Bastion.

“What are we seeing?” Happy asked. Pepper sat down at the computer terminal and began tracing the signal. She laughed.

“We’re seeing what Tony’s seeing,” she said. “He patched the armor into the SE mainframe in Chicago and routed the signal back here.” Rhodey grinned.

“You’re a crafty son of a bitch,” he whispered. He grabbed the remote and turned up the audio. Just as he did, a line of text began to scroll across the bottom of the screen.

Hey there home audience. This program is brought to you courtesy of Tony Stark and his amazing brain.

“Well, he has a healthy ego,” Happy said.

“Nothing healthy about it,” Pepper and Rhodey said in unison. They both laughed.

It’s plenty healthy. Now, keep quiet and pay attention.

“-looking you in the eye. What the hell do you want?” Tony’s voice said. Bastion smiled and leaned forward.

“You’ve been funding the research of a young bio-technologist by the name of Maya Hansen, have you not?”

“Yes,” Tony said. “Her work is years ahead of the times.”

The Extremis Project. Look it up quick. Pepper quickly grabbed her tablet PC and searched the Stark Enterprises database. She found the research quickly.

“Nano-tech,” she said out loud. “It’s a system meant to assist in self-repair. Lots of applications in medicine, particularly cancer research. Currently researching several samples of Phalanx techno-organic material.”

“From what I can recall,” Rhodey said, “Bastion’s Prime Sentinels include a lot of nano-tech.”

“How did you know that?” Happy said. “I was barely able to confirm he existed.”

“It helps being buddies with Nick Fury.”

“We need that technology,” Bastion said on screen. “And you’re going to give it to us.”

“Pretty bold demand,” Tony replied. The camera view began to rotate as he spoke. It lingered on the three Prime Sentinels, then panned to the hostages. Rhodey breathed a deep sigh of relief.

“They’re all okay,” he said. “Nifty little camera on the armor, Tone.”

Thanks. I’m going to make a move. As far as I can tell, Bastion is the only one of them that’s EM shielded. I have an EM pulse generator built into the armor for emergencies. It’s a major power drain, so I’m going to have to hit Bastion quickly when it goes off. I’ll be off-line the moment I set off the pulse.

“Do it Tony,” Happy said. “Be careful though.”

Always.

“Know what?” he said. “I’m not.” And the screen went to static. Rhodey sat back in his chair.

“I hope he was right.”

“Yeah,” Pepper said. “Me too.”

“Know what?” Tony said. “I’m not.” His visor slammed shut, and there was a dull thud followed by a wide pulse of energy. The three Prime Sentinels collapsed as it hit them. Tony breathed a sigh of relief and acted quickly. The uni-beam in his chest plate sparked before a stream of energy poured out. He blasted Bastion, throwing him backwards and through the exterior wall.

He took three running steps before igniting his repulsors and following Bastion out the hole. His opponent had ignited his own propulsion system and rocketed towards him. Tony turned and blasted Bastion with his palm repulsors. Bastion twisted, but the blast still struck him in the shoulder, and he tumbled through the air.

Tony turned and flew downwards, slamming head-first into Bastion. He punched him several times before Bastion recovered enough to strike back. He blasted Tony, spun and rocketed straight up. Iron Man followed as best he could, but Bastion turned enough to release a handful of dust. As he flew into it, every system alarm he had started blaring.

“Dammit,” he growled. It was charged metal chaff, giving off enough interference that he wouldn’t be able to get any data outside of his visuals for several minutes. Bastion had already disappeared from view, and that meant he was gone. He directed himself back towards the roof of Stark Enterprises and landed softly. He looked around himself carefully before beginning the reboots he needed to.

Bastion was gone.

24 hours later
Stark Enterprises New York

Tony stood over an examination table, rubbing his eyes. Of the three Prime Sentinels, two had fully reverted to their human identities, but this third… He was still stuck in the Sentinel form. They had tried running fingerprints, but it didn’t have them. The blood draw had a little more success, but just barely. They were able to identify that the Prime Sentinel was once human, but his DNA didn’t match any in the government databases. He sighed.

They had an hour left to investigate before they had to turn the Sentinel back to SHIELD custody. Fury had given them that long to look into it as a courtesy and he was lucky to have that. He heard the door open, and Pepper walked inside.

“So what’s the story here boss?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. He turned to the flatscreen hanging over the table. “No discernable fingerprints, no hits on DNA, it’s a total dead-end.” Pepper began chewing the end of her pen and frowned.

“Not to sound insensitive,” she said, “but you’re focusing on the person. Maybe you should be focusing on the tech?” Tony stopped, looked at her incredulously and grinned.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” he said.

“That’s what you keep me around for Tony,” she said. He sat down in the rolling chair he had next to him and rolled over to his desk. He picked up a vial. He had separated the blood from the plasma earlier, and most of the nanites had remained in the plasma solution. He picked up an eyedropper and slide, extracted a few drops of plasma and dropped them on the slide. He then turned and placed the slide under his microscope and put the image on the flatscreen.

“Look at that,” he whispered. “The nanites are repairing and rebooting themselves.” He pointed to a small cluster. “This group is working together to rebuild this larger one. Some of them are sacrificing… What the hell?” He stopped and looked closer.

“Tony?”

“Hang on a sec Pep.” He magnified the image, zooming very close on the larger component. She stepped up to his side.

“What are we looking at?” she asked.

“That’s… that’s one of my dad’s power-cell designs,” he said. “Miniaturized, of course, but it’s definitely a Howard Stark special. What the hell is one of my dad’s designs doing as Sentinel components? I’ve been over records a thousand times. We’ve never sold anything to Trask.”

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I can’t imagine why Trask would use…” Pepper glanced down at the Sentinel. “Uh, Tony…?”

“Yeah?”

“We have a problem.” He glanced at her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The Sentinel’s eyes just opened.” Tony jumped to his feet as the Sentinel sat up. It raised its arm and blasted them both, shoving them to the far wall. It blasted the door and rocketed out into the hallway.

“Son of a bitch,” Tony growled. “Pepper, get us into full lockdown. I’m going after it!” He rushed out of the room, stripping off his lab coat as he went. He was already wearing the dataspine that helped translate his nerve impulses into commands within the armor. He had unsuited only a short distance from the exam lab. It was lucky. In the middle of SI, it could take up to ten minutes to start suiting up. Right now, he would able to do it in three.

He began donning the armor the moment he ran into the room, starting with the chest plate and ending with his helmet. As he locked each piece in place, it began to boot up. As he donned his helmet, the armor’s systems were fully operational.

“Maria, I need your help,” he said.

“I am at your full disposal Tony,” the AI system replied. He smiled. A soothing female voice would be a huge help to get him to relax.

“The Prime Sentinel in SI, track it. I need to know where it is, right this moment.”

“One moment,” it said. “Currently, the Sentinel is en route to Sub-level 3.”

“What’s in Sub-level 3?”

“Primary servers for off-site research and cooling.”

“Damn,” he said. He glanced at the window. It was still open from his arrival earlier. The idea that crossed his mind was stupid, but it would be quicker than going through the building, meaning he’d be in the Sentinel’s way faster. That meant less potential loss of life. He ignited his repulsors and flew out the window. He allowed himself to drop, using the repulsors to slow himself on the way down. He landed and ran into the lobby.

“Big, ugly Sentinel?” he asked to the room as a whole. “He come through yet?”

“J-just a second ago,” said one of the security guards. “Headed downstairs.”

“Damn again.” He ignited his repulsors again and followed as quickly as he could. He flew through the three stories of stairs as quickly as he could before he landed in Sub-level 3. He kicked the door, sending it sailing into the room. He held out his left gauntlet as he strode into the room.

“Attention Prime Sentinel!” he called. “Stand down or I will end you.” There was a crash further in the level. As he walked, he armed a new, untested weapon system- a miniaturized plasma cannon. The weapon would fire a concentrated ball-like burst of plasma, with the strength adjusted to his needs. The lowest power setting would create a small EM pulse, not enough to wipe out a hard drive or server, but it would slow down any tech-based foe significantly. Multiple bursts could stop one.

Tests had worked well so far. He prayed it was as effective in the field.

He found the Sentinel standing over one of the servers, its hand inside the frame. Tony extended his arm, and the armor’s targeting system locked on the Sentinel.

“Second warning,” he said. “Step away immediately.” The Sentinel looked up at him, then back to the server. Tony gritted his teeth and fired. He hit the Sentinel with a half dozen orbs of glowing blue energy. It jerked away from the server and he fired again. Another half-dozen orbs struck the Sentinel, scorching its armor and causing it to seize up. He walked over to the Sentinel and stood over it, ready for anything.

It didn’t get up.

“Tony?” Rhodey’s voice said over his comm.

“Go ahead Jim,” he said.

“We just caught a transmission from down there,” he said. “A compressed datapack was just sent through our servers to an unknown receiver.”

“Son of a bitch,” he said. “Get people working on tracing that, and get the jet prepped.”

“Tony?”

“We’re headed down to Texas to have a word with Doctor Hansen about her project.”

In Iron Man #3: Stark learns about the Extremis project, and a potentially frightening connection to the events of the world at large, leading to a confrontation with Bastion!