Chapter 5: TGS - #4
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L.A.
–Jack Sullivan–
Okay, going with Stark's crazy good employment offer was clearly the right decision. Looking at the opulent suite that had been given to him the first night he had in LA was crazy. Even in both of his lives combined, he had never even been close to such a place. Sure, in his first life, when he had paid off his debts and was investing aggressively for his future, he could have afforded this place if he went completely off the rails for that month's budget but it was never realistic or practical for him to be living and lounging in such a huge hotel room. In fact, calling it a room would be doing it disservice. It was more like a penthouse built into the building of a hotel along with housekeeping and room service. It was like the best home ever. He could live here forever.
And therein came the problem, Jack thought to himself, sighing. He could not live here, in this safe comfortable abode, cut off from the rest of the world. It would be too much anxiety, living here and not knowing what was going on outside and then preparing for it. He knew that, eventually, the shit would roll right down into his lap anyway so why not be in the know from the beginning so that he can prepare for it. He knew that Stark had some other reason to help him apart from his powers but he was not really worried about that. Sure, Stark had his flaws but it was also undeniable that he was, more often than not, on the good side, and to the current him, that's all that mattered.
So, there he was, sitting in his bathrobe, a very expensive bathrobe, on an equally expensive couch with a glass of wine in his hand, changing channels on the very large TV that the suite had two of when the bell rang. He quickly put down the glass and went to the door, very excited about the ice cream he had ordered. He was told that it was "out of the world" by the room service guy and so far, the room service guy had not disappointed him even once so he was inclined to believe him.
"Ah!" He very much did not yelp when Tony Stark, the man himself, appeared at his door, dressed in a three-piece suit at 2:00 in the morning. So great was his shock that a green covering promptly appeared on top of his exposed extremities. He had practiced all the time he was awake on the plan to try to turn off the primary barrier that seemed to cover every portion of his skin and was finally able to do it at 1 in the morning. That was the reason he had waited so long to have a nice long hot shower in the absolutely opulent multi-shower head bathroom that was there in the master bedroom of his suite. And now that he had finally coaxed his body and powers into relaxing, this happened. One of his heroes just up and appeared in front of him.
"Ahem," He coughed in an effort to make himself forget that anything appeared and then stepped back and gestured for Tony to enter the suite. Tony nodded as he looked at him weirdly and then entered the suite. He made no effort to sit on the couch, instead, he went to the tall ceiling-high windows and stood in front of them.
He just stood in the back awkwardly, not knowing where to place his hands. Finally, he tightened his bathrobe and then went straight to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.
"You need something?" He asked Tony on his way. He closed his mouth when Tony just waved his hand and then went on his weird sightseeing of the street below.
"Alright then," He mumbled to himself and promptly gulped down a glass of water. "Ah, that hit the spot," He sighed in relief. Sometimes, a glass of cold crisp water is all you need to shock your system back to calmness.
"So," he began as he went back into the living room with another bottle of water, just in case he needed it, "-What can I do for you, Mr.Stark? I thought I was supposed to be trained before I could begin working for you."
"Ah, technically," Tony said before snatching the bottle right out of his hands and then gulping it down, "I began paying for you the moment you sat in my jet and came to the US illegally, I might add,"
Ah, so that's how he was going to play it.
"I see," He nodded slowly and then went back to sit on the sofa, Tony followed suit to sit in front of him. "I repeat, what can I do for you, Mr.Stark?"
"Nothing," Tony said briskly before looking at his watch, "At the moment, nothing. I want you to come by my house tomorrow so that I can do some checks on you."
He was about to nod before he was interrupted by Stark, "Do you know you are always emitting trace amounts of gamma energy…."
"Jack," He said once he realised that he had never told Tony or Javis his name. In his defense, it had never come up. He had figured that the hotel would ask for some form of identification but apparently, once you have Stark level of money, even hardened laws are mere suggestions. "Jack Sullivan is my name. I don't remember anything else from before I was falling in the snow but this name. Jack Sullivan,"
"Right, Jack, yeah. So, as I was saying, you are constantly emitting trace amounts of Gamma radiation which are startlingly similar to one that I have encountered once before. Also, the moment your green skin or armour, whatever it is you call it, activated, that amount exploded exponentially. You are lucky that I own most of the facilities nearby that have gamma sensors and thus, am able to hide you. But even that cannot be a long-term solution."
"So, you are saying I need to not use my powers to hide better? But then how will I do my job of protecting the person you want me to protect?" He questioned Stark, mindful of the fact that he was not yet told of the identity of the person he was supposed to protect and he was playing the part of an amnesiac kid for sympathy points. He was not sure how far that would take him but he was not exactly a tactical genius, even in this new life so he went with the first thing that came to his mind. He was still assimilating the memories of Jack Sullivan and had come across a very interesting tidbit. His appearance and his body had been changed immensely from the person he was before he was experimented on. He had grown about 5 inches and gained dozens of pounds in muscle mass. Not to mention, he had also been de-aged somehow so he looked more like a teenager and less like the 30-year-old he was.
"No, No No No, You don't have to worry about that. I will whip up something to help you contain the gamma leakage and mostly, the normal radiation you emit is overlapped by background radiation anyway so unless someone has your specific signature to look for, they would not be able to find you. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. Once you use your powers though, if they are looking for you, finding you becomes very simple. I am not an expert on powers and you don't seem to know much about them either. How did you turn off the green skin part though?" Stark went on a ramble and then questioned him.
"Ah," He stuttered and then raised his right hand, creating a small rectangular sheet of green colour that then floated around the entire room before coming back to his hand, a handle forming out of thin air before he held onto the handle, creating a makeshift shield for him, "I practised a lot. I finally turned off that annoying skin an hour ago so that I could take a nice hot shower. It takes some concentrating to do in real-time so it activated because I was surprised to see you at my doorstep at 2 in the morning," His unvoiced question was clear for Stark to see and yet, he glossed over that question with the ease of a seasoned politician and focused on the shield that was resting on his right hand.
"May I?" Stark looked at him as he extended his arm towards the shield. "Yeah, sure," He nodded and then released the shield to him.
"Surprisingly light," HE muttered before snapping his fingers, causing a suit to appear behind him with a shimmer of light.
"Whoa," He jerked back in surprise, completely caught flat-footed in the presence of one of his suits in the room. He was completely unaware of that and could have been easily killed by him had Stark wished so. Damn, he had great stealth tech, not that he was looking for it, his relaxed mind and body not actively looking for threats anymore.
Tony ignored his surprise and then handed over the shield to the suit which immediately opened up to reveal a whole host of contraptions that immediately began scanning and working on the small shield he had given Stark.
"So, you can still control that?" Stark asked him without looking back as a remote hologram of some sort appeared in front of him that he immediately began working on.
"Uh, yeah.." He said trailing, unsure of the direction Stark was taking this meeting.
"Try and move it," He raised an eyebrow at Stark's order before he willed for the shield to come to him. He could see the suit's hands jerk for a bit before it stopped, the sounds of servos whirring echoing in the room. He raised an eyebrow at that and looked at Stark who motioned for him to try again so he did, with increased focus. The hands jerked once again and the servos began making even more noise but the shield did not move so he, like an anime character, raised both his arms towards the shield and just..pulled.
He pulled with all his might and smiled because the servos finally gave out, pulling the robot towards him before his smile dimmed as the robot then simply activated repulsor arrays that were somehow embedded in his shoulder blades, creating enough thrust to counter his force. Even then, he didn't give up and pulled more and more until the robot was forced to run the repulsors at full blast. At this point, the jets were causing gusts of wind in the living room, scattering any paper and dropping vases left and right, and yet, he didn't stop pulling. Finally, with a herculean roar of effort, he pulled the shield..and the arms of the suit straight out of its sockets.
"Shit!" Stark exclaimed but he had no time to even duck before the suit which had its repulsors arrays at full blast came barreling towards him. At the last moment, all he had was the shield he had taken from said robot which he raised in front of him, into which the robot crashed. There was a dull gong in the room as he was thrown straight into the window and then slid down like a cartoon character, looking at the smoking heap of suit that was attempting to stand up on its two legs before Stark snapped his fingers which finally caused the suit to go limp.
"Stark, What the fuck!" He cursed out, looking at his semi-cracked shield. In the first place, it had been under a lot of stress due to all the pulling done on it and then the suit had crashed into it at who knows what speed, causing it to develop cracks. With a sigh, he willed the shield to disappear and stood up from the ground, and looked at Tony who was busy looking at the screen that was being projected from his smart watch.
"Not bad. More than expected. I see, so that's what happened," Stark continued to mutter to himself, causing his anger to increase until he created a barrier and covered the smart watch in it, closing the holographic screen. Stark stopped midair, looking comical as he had his hands drawn as if he was writing on an invisible screen, only that he had no screen to speak of at the moment.
"You couldn't wait just one more minute, huh?" Stark deadpanned at him, causing him to snort.
"So, what data did you get from ruining one of your, no doubt, million-dollar suits, oh, wise Lord Stark?" He asked him snarkily, his mood a bit off because he was supposed to be relaxing and sleeping in that bed that was so comfortable it should be illegal.
"Okay, first of all, I pay you, so the snark is not appreciated. Secondly, try multi-million dollar suit and thirdly, the data is something that will help you too so I don't understand why a little lost sleep is making you so cranky,"
"The thing is Stark, I have not slept or relaxed in over 24 hours, and just when I was about to sleep, you showed up with your killer robot suit which is now just a smoking heap of garbage in the living room floor," He said to Stark in a calm manner yet his anger was radiating out the same.
Stark paused and looked at the condition of the living room with a broken suit on one end, broken decorations like vases strewn about, and raised his finger, "You know what, you have a point. I have already collected some preliminary data and might have something for you tomorrow. Meet me at my house in the afternoon. I will send someone to pick you up. Now, good night," Stark said before he gathered his smartwatch and snapped his finger, causing another suit of his to reveal itself from its stealth mode which then promptly picked up the other suit and went invisible as well.
"Really, do I have to worry about another one of those staying after you leave and then killing me in my sleep?" He deadpanned at Stark.
"Good night, Jack," Stark waved him goodbye and marched out of the door. The suits presumably followed after him and closed the door, causing him to collapse on the couch with a sigh of relief and exhaustion.
He took one look at the mess in the living room and decided it was the headache of the housekeeping services and dragged his body up to the bedroom and just collapsed in the utterly comfortable bed. With a will, another barrier appeared above him which zoomed across the room and turned off the lights, engulfing the room into the blissful darkness where he slowly drifted into the sweet lull of sleep.
Word Count - 2556
Upto 15 extra chapters - P*treon
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